Fig 2. Stakeholder communities providing literature for this study, including the topic of the literature/dataset.

Literature relating to cockles covered the areas of cockle biology, reproduction and distribution. The topic of “Biology” refers to the biology and natural history of cockles. The topic of “Culture” dealt with the relationship between people and cockles (e.g. gastronomy). “Ecology” related to the interaction between cockles and their environment (e.g. sediment) and other species (e.g. predators). The topic “Fishery” related to cockle harvest levels and “Parasites” was classified as literature reporting parasites in cockles.