UKBenthos version 5.17 can be accessed through Oil Gas Energies UK (now updated to v5.18) (Access through https://oeuk.org.uk/product/ukbenthos-database-5-18/). Each species was assigned to one of six feeding groups based on main dietary content and distinct feeding behaviours: detritivore, filter feeder, grazer, parasite, predator, and scavenger. We assumed a total of nine basal resources present at all sites (bacteria, carrion, CPOM, faeces, FPOM, fungi, macroalgae, microalgae, and protists) and then assigned subsets of those basal resources to detritivores, filter feeders, grazers, and scavengers (see Table S2). A literature review of stomach content and host data of predators and parasites was conducted to compile their respective feeding interactions. Feeding interactions were only established when there were matches between records from peer-reviewed sources and species present in the UK Benthos database. Our literature research noted that a high proportion of predators can feed on dead animal prey, and thus we included carrion as a link to predators in our food webs. For any predator or parasite with no diet information, its prey or host would be inferred from other taxa in the same taxonomic level. We identified nine well-established topological metrics to describe the horizontal (e.g., number of species in a trophic level) and vertical (e.g., number of trophic levels) dimensions of food web architecture, including proportions of basal, intermediate, and top species, mean trophic level, standard deviations of normalised generality (generalitySD) and vulnerability (vulnerabilitySD), link richness, linkage density, and connectance. The definitions and ecological implications of all metrics are described in the Table S3. Each metrics was enumerated in R using the ‘cheddar’ package, with mean trophic level calculated using the ‘PreyAveragedTrophicLevel’ function