Development trends of marine communities in protected areas of the North Sea: baseline and tools for long-term monitoring

• Mobile bottom trawling (MGF) is an anthropogenic stressor and is to be excluded from parts of the Natura 2000 sites in the German Exclusive Economic Zone. • In the present project, we generate baseline data to investigate the long-term effects on the occurrence of fish and epifauna communities following the exclusion of MGF in these areas. • In developing a future monitoring concept, alternative methods were additionally assessed in terms of their applicability and feasibility.