Version: n/a Date published: File name: Degraer_inpress.pdf

Number of pages: 13 (including these pages) Summary: This study aimed at demonstrating the usefulness of habitat suitability modelling as a full-coverage mapping tool with high relevance for marine management through (1) the construction of a habitat suitability model for the soft sediment macrobenthic communities in the Belgian part of the North Sea (BPNS) and (2) predicting the full-coverage spatial distribution of macrobenthic communities within the BPNS. The BPNS was selected as a case-study area because of the large data availability on both macrobenthos and environmental characteristics. Discriminant function analysis (DFA) objectively selected median grain size and sediment mud content above bathymetry, slope and distance to the coast to represent the most important environmental variables determining the macrobenthic community distribution. The application of the habitat suitability model to the full-coverage maps of median grain size and sediment mud content, taken fro