A combined, harmonized data product showing the best evidence for the extent of biogenic substrate in Europe

The 2019 version of the EUNIS marine habitat classification system includes ‘biogenic habitat’ at level 2 of the classification hierarchy, putting it on the same footing as other, grain-size-based substrate types such as ‘mud’ and ‘sand’. Until now, the EUSeaMap seabed substrate data product1 has been primarily composed of grain-size based classes, plus rock and Posidonia oceanica meadows. The process was: 1. The EMODnet Geology consortium compiled a data product showing the extent of grain-size based sediment classes, plus rock. 2. The EMODnet Seabed Habitats consortium made some additional ad hoc changes, including: a. Addition of data that did not make it into the EMODnet Geology product for various reasons, b. Addition of Posidonia oceanica meadows polygons in the Mediterranean. This is the only biogenic substrate type that has been included in EUSeaMap to date. The ad hoc changes previously made to the EMODnet Geology substrate layer by EMODnet Seabed Habitats are described in the EUSeaMap 2019 and EUSeaMap 2016 technical reports (Vasquez et al, 2020; Populus et al, 2017). Therefore, in 2017, the EMODnet Seabed Habitats consortium agreed that they should create a new data product for ‘biogenic substrate’, which may be combined with the grain-size-based substrate data from EMODnet Geology to provide a more complete representation of all substrate types relevant to biological communities. It is important to note that: • biogenic substrates have not been mapped comprehensively in any region of Europe and therefore the final product is not representative of the full distribution. • The purpose of this compilation is not to compile data on habitats of conservation interest, although several biogenic substrate types are also habitats of conservation interest

European Broad-Scale Seabed Habitat Maps Support Implementation of Ecosystem-Based Management

We have analyzed the development of “Broad-Scale Seabed Habitat Maps” (BSHM) and their potential use in a European context with regard to the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) implementation, MPA designation and network assessment as well as other applications of BSHMs. The analyses are anchored in BSHMs developed by a series of interlinked EU projects (e.g. UKSeaMap, BALANCE, MESH, Mesh Atlantic, EUSeaMap 2012, and EUSeaMap 2016) and all maps are based on environmental data. Some EU Member States have used BSHMs as part of their MSFD Initial Assessments published in 2012. However, we conclude that BSHMs are a prerequisite for another key MSFD activity, i.e. mapping of potentially cumulative effects of multiple human stressors. Further, BSHMs seem to play a growing role with regard to evidence-based assessments of MPAs. With the upcoming second round of MSFD Initial Assessments due in 2018, including assessment of potentially cumulative pressures, there seems to be an increasing need for more BSHMs nationally, regionally and on a European scale

Considerations on a population of the endangered marine mollusc Patella ferruginea Gmelin, 1791 (Gastropoda, Patellidae) in the Cala Iris islet (National Park of Al Hoceima - Morocco, Alboran sea)

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Method for classifying EUSeaMap according to the new version of EUNIS, HELCOM HUB and the Mediterranean habitat types

The need for maps of the seabed has become increasingly urgent in recent years for a wide range of reasons and uses, including reporting on the state of the marine environment to implement EU policies such as the MSFD. In ten years, the EMODnet Seabed Habitats initiative has produced maps for all European marine regions, where input data allowed, the resultant seabed habitat maps are known collectively as ”EUSeaMap”. With products such as EUSeaMap, it is assumed that mapping the broad habitat types defined in seabed habitat classifications (e.g. EUNIS) provides appropriate proxies for the occurrence of the species or communities of species that occupy them. In addition to being released in EUNIS 2007-2011 and the MSFD Broad Benthic Habitat Types, the next version of EUSeaMap (expected in September 2021) will be released in three classifications, namely EUNIS 2019 (the new version of EUNIS), and the regional classifications HELCOM HUB and the Mediterranean habitat types. This report proposes crosswalks between EUSeaMap modelled broad habitat types and the three classifications, and briefly discusses the opportunities/challenges entailed by the crosswalks. Our conclusion is that no major issue is expected for the translation of EUSeaMap into these classifications. We also argue that in EUNIS 2019 there are gaps at biotope levels, particularly in the Black Sea and the Arctic, and that measures should be taken to address these gaps

Multiple pressures and their combined effects in Europe's seas

This report presents for the first time in Europe an overview of anthropogenic pressures and their combined effects in Europe’s seas. The assessment covers the period of 2011-2016 but also presents how human activities and pressures at sea have changed over a longer time horizon. Practically the entire European marine area is under multiple pressures – such as hazardous substances, fish stock exploitation, climate change, underwater noise, non-indigenous species, seafloor damage, marine litter and nutrient enrichment. Shelf areas and coastal zone are affected by physical disturbance of seabed, eutrophication and non-indigenous species. The highest potential combined effects are found along coastal areas of the North Sea, Southern Baltic Sea, Adriatic and Western Mediterranean. The good news from this assessment is that many of the dangerous trends seem to have reversed. We have shown that the nutrient levels, hazardous substances, northern fish stocks and tuna stocks in the open seas show improvement. However, extensive pressures from several human activities still threaten the marine ecosystem, such as disturbance of seabed, and no trend reversal was seen in this assessment

EUSeaMap. A European broad-scale seabed habitat map

In order to most benefit from the potential offered by the European marine basins in terms of growth and employment (Blue Growth), and to protect the marine environment, we need to know more about the seafloor. European Directives, such as the MSFD, but also the Horizon 2020 roadmap explicitly called for a multi-resolution full coverage of all European seas including bathymetry, geology and habitats. The present work, following on a suite of past initiatives, has made a big step forward in this direction. It has first boosted the collation of existing maps from surveys by setting up a framework and a procedure to encourage people to submit their maps and data. This resulted in a more attractive EMODnet seabed habitat portal and a snowball effect with more and more people willing to join. However, collation will eventually come to an end and as new creations of seabed habitat maps are so complex and time-consuming, a cost-efficient way to meet the need for a full-coverage habitat map was found to be low-resolution maps and models to predict seafloor habitat types. The broad-scale map referred to as EUSeaMap has been created by this project and after the first two phases it now covers all European basins from the Barents Sea to Macaronesia and to the Black Sea. By harmonising mapping procedures - based on the EUNIS classification - and fostering a common understanding among seabed mappers in Europe, EUSeaMap provides today the community with a comprehensive, free and ready-to-use map that can find applications at regional scale for management and conservation issues. Tables and maps for all basins can be found in section 3 “Results and disciussions”. The project has played a key role in giving feedback to other EMODnet communities dealing with bathymetry, geology and biology, all essential data sources for the broad-scale map. It has also improved the understanding of the EUNIS habitat classification - with a focus on the Adriatic and the Black Sea - by better specifying transitions between classes based on benthic ground-truth data. It has fostered the development of oceanographic variables such as light, waves and currents that have a strong bearing on habitats. Finally it has also been instrumental in developing map confidence assessment methods that account for the broad spatial variation in data sources quality and for uncertain boundaries between habitat classes. The EUSeaMap methods are repeatable and ensure that the predictive maps can continue to be improved in the future, as a result either of EUNIS enhancements or increase in resolution. From today’s 250m resolution it is likely that new deliveries of enhanced source layers due to steady progress in oceanography and geophysics will enable constant refinement of the maps over time

Mapping seabed habitats over large areas: prospects and limits

Since its inception, in 2009, EMODnet Seabed Habitats has brought together a European consortium of specialists in benthic ecology and seabed habitat mapping to develop a transnational broad-scale seabed habitat map, named EUSeaMap. EUSeaMap is the only pan-European cartographic product that provides a standardised trans-boundary overview of the spatial distribution of seabed habitats across Europe. As such, it has been extensively used in various applications such as Marine Protected Area evaluation or cumulative impact of stressors on habitats, and it is likely to be used again in the future in various marine ecosystem assessments. It is therefore important to continue to update it regularly when significant improvements to the data products that constitute its basis, i.e. the seabed substrate, bathymetry or environmental variables, are published. In addition to EUSeaMap, it would be desirable to provide stakeholders with products on the spatial distribution of targeted habitats/biotopes such as those of conservation interest (e.g. kelp forest, seagrass meadows, coral reefs). Some techniques, hereafter referred to as "SDMs", are acknowledged to be effective in mapping these habitats. We argue that a program that would use these techniques to map these key habitats/biotopes in European waters would be invaluable, but such a program can only be achieved if there is a significant improvement in the spatial resolution of environmental variables. An important message of this report is therefore that the EU should consider funding a project that would develop spatially explicit high-resolution (at least 500 m) data products on key variables (light availability, hydrodynamics, wave exposure, temperature, oxygenation, chlorophyll-a, phosphate, nitrate, etc.) that would spatially cover all European waters

EUSeaMap 2019, A European broad-scale seabed habitat map, technical report

EUSeaMap 2019 is the third iteration of EUSeaMap. All versions have been produced as part of the EMODnet Seabed Habitats project, which is one of several thematic lots in EMODnet. The project has brought together a European consortium of specialists in benthic ecology and seabed habitat mapping. The partners first collaborated in EMODnet phase 1 (2009-2012) to deliver a prototype predictive seabed habitat map in four trial basins (Greater North Sea, Celtic Seas, Baltic, Western Mediterranean). This predictive model was named EUSeaMap (Cameron and Askew, 2011). In EMODnet Phase 2 (2012-2016), the consortium extended EUSeaMap coverage to all European regions (Populus et al, 2017). In the new version, the spatial coverage was extended further North in order to include the Barents Sea. The spatial detail was substantially improved. This was made possible by improvements to the physical predictor variables created by the other EMODnet lots which are the input data to the EUSeaMap model. A substantial revision of the map creation process has also been carried out in order to make it more reproducible. This document describes all these modifications which have led to the elaboration of EUSeaMap 2019

EUSeaMap 2021. A European broad-scale seabed habitat map

EUSeaMap 2021 is the fifth iteration of EUSeaMap. All versions have been produced as part of the EMODnet Seabed Habitats project, which is one of several thematic lots in EMODnet. The project has brought together a European consortium of specialists in benthic ecology and seabed habitat mapping. The partners first collaborated in EMODnet phase 1 (2009-2012) to deliver a prototype predictive seabed habitat map in four trial basins (Greater North Sea, Celtic Seas, Baltic, Western Mediterranean). This predictive model was named EUSeaMap (Cameron and Askew, 2011). In EMODnet Phase 2 (2012-2016), the consortium extended EUSeaMap coverage to all European regions (Populus et al, 2017). In phase 3 (2017-2021), a first version (2019) extended the spatial coverage further North in order to include the Barents Sea, developed better environmental data were incorporated, and dramatically improved the spatial detail. The new version, developed in the period 2019-2021 and named 2021, is substantially evolved from the previous version as it accounts for new seabed substrate data published by EMODnet Geology in 2021, including in Denmark, Estonia, France, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Norway and Spain, 2) is published in new classifications, including the new version of the marine section of EUNIS, named EUNIS 2019 and 3) addresses some issues identified in EUSeaMap 2019