Data underlying the publication: Assessing sand extraction effects on macrobenthic communities using joint species distribution models

Macrobenthic data were collected between February and April 2022 as part of the Zand uit Zee programme using two sampling methods: a NIOZ Triple-D dredge and a Reineck box corer. In total, 71 dredge hauls and 320 box-core samples were collected across four sand extraction pits and corresponding reference areas, with balanced sampling inside and outside each pit. The complete species abundance dataset is publicly available through RWS AquaDesk. Species not recorded in a sample were assumed absent and assigned a count of zero. To improve comparability between sampling gears and reduce estimation problems associated with sparse occurrence data, species were retained only if they occurred in at least 10% of samples, were captured by both gears, and were recorded in at least 10 samples per gear. After filtering, 20 species remained; one species (Ophelia borealis) was subsequently excluded because it caused model convergence issues, resulting in a final dataset of 19 macrobenthic species. Environmental covariates describing habitat conditions, including bathymetric position index, bed shear stress, and sediment grain-size composition, were linked to each sample for subsequent analyses.