Yes, We Can! Large-Scale Integrative Assessment of European Regional Seas, Using Open Access Databases

Substantial progress has been made in assessing marine health in an integrative way. However, managers are still reluctant in undertaking such assessments, because: (i) lack of indicators; (ii) absence of targets; (iii) difficulty of aggregating indicators from different ecosystem components, habitats, and areas; (iv) absence of criteria on the number of indicators to be used; (v) discussion on the use of “one-out, all-out” (OOAO) principle in aggregating; and (vi) lack of traceability when integrating data. Our objective was, using open access databases with indicators across all the European seas with agreed targets, to demonstrate if the Nested Environmental status Assessment Tool (NEAT), can be used at the European scale, serving to managers and policy-makers as a tool to assess the environmental status under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). We have used MSFD Descriptor D3 (commercial fish) from 341 stocks, 119 species and two indicators from each of them (years 2013–2015); D5 (eutrophication) with 90th percentile of Chlorophyll-a (years 2009–2014); and D8 (contaminants), with Anthracene, Fluoranthene, Naphthalene, Cadmium, Nickel, and Lead as indicators (years 2009–2013). We have calculated the environmental status for each European subdivision, subregion, and regional sea, nested at different levels. The analyses include weighting and no-weighting by each assessment area; for ecosystem component (water column, phytoplankton, fish, crustaceans, and molluscs); descriptor (three), and habitat (pelagic, demersal/benthic), with the confidence value of the status. A sensitivity analysis was undertaken to determine a minimum number of indicators to include for a robust assessment. We demonstrated that using NEAT in assessing the status of large marine areas, by aggregating indicators, ecosystem components and descriptors, at different spatial scales, can remove at least four out of the six barriers that managers and policy-makers confront when undertaking such assessments. This can be done by using open-access databases and already established targets. Aggregating indicators of different origin is possible. Around 40 indicators seem to be enough to obtain robust assessments. It is better to integrate the assessment items using an ecosystem-based approach, rather than using the OOAO principle. Using NEAT, this approach supports identifying the problematic environmental issues needing management attention and measures

Efecto del pisoteo y excavación del marisqueo sobre las praderas intermareales de Zostera noltei (Zosteraceae)

Seagrass beds are among the most valuable ecosystems in the world but they are also among the ones most affected by human activities, and they have decreased significantly in recent decades. In many areas, such as in the Basque Country (northern Spain), seagrass beds occupy areas that are also of interest for human activities such as recreation and shellfishing. They may therefore face a number of pressures that cause damage or irreversible states. Taking into account the limited distribution of seagrass beds in the Basque Country and the interest in their conservation, an eight-month field experiment focusing on the Zostera noltei growing season was carried out to evaluate the effect of shellfish gathering. We used generalized linear models to assess different intensities of trampling and digging, as the most important pressures of shellfishing applied to Zostera noltei beds. The results indicated that shoot density of Z. noltei was negatively altered by trampling treatments and positively affected (as a recovery) by digging treatments. This finding suggests that shellfishing adversely affects seagrass abundance and is potentially responsible for its low density in the Oka estuary. Our findings are important for management and should be taken into account in seagrass conservation and restoration programmes.Las praderas marinas se encuentran entre los ecosistemas más valiosos del mundo; sin embargo, también se encuentran, al mismo tiempo, entre los más afectados por las actividades humanas, por lo que han sufrido un importante declive en las recientes décadas. En algunas zonas, como por ejemplo en el País Vasco (Norte de España), las praderas marinas ocupan superficies que también son de interés para varias actividades humanas (p.ej. paseo, marisqueo); por ello, se enfrentan a diversas presiones que provocan daños o situaciones irreversibles. Teniendo en cuenta la reducida distribución de las praderas marinas en el País Vasco y el interés por su conservación se realizó un experimento de campo de 8 meses de duración, centrado en el periodo de crecimiento de Zostera noltei, para evaluar el efecto del marisqueo. Se aplicaron distintas intensidades de pisoteo y excavación (consideradas como presiones más importantes ejercidas por el marisqueo) sobre una superficie de pradera marina. Los resultados obtenidos mediante modelos mixtos lineales generalizados indican que la densidad de hojas de Z. noltei respondió negativamente en los tratamientos de pisoteo y positivamente (reflejando una recuperación) en el experimento de excavación. Esto sugiere que el marisqueo afecta negativamente a la abundancia de la pradera marina, y que es potencialmente responsable de su baja densidad en el estuario del Oka. Estas aportaciones resultan relevantes para la gestión de estas zonas y deberían tenerse en cuenta en los planes de conservación y restauración de las praderas marinas

Deliverable D4.4-3, Report detailing Multimetric fish-based indices sensitivity to anthropogenic and natural pressures, and to metrics’ variation range

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) aims at achieving good ecological status (GES) for surface water bodies throughout Europe, by 2015. Consequently European countries are currently developing and intercalibrating methods based on biological, hydromorphological and physico-chemical quality elements for the assessment of their transitional waters, including fishes. The present work focuses on the response of fish indicators and indices to anthropogenic pressures and natural factors. For doing that, datasets from the Basque and Portuguese estuaries, in the North East Atlantic, have been used. Hence, biological data from fish (and in some cases, crustaceans), together with different types of pressure (population, industry, ports, dredging, global pressures, pollution, channeling, etc.) and hydromorphological data (flow, estuary volume, depth, intertidal surface, residence time, etc.) have been analyzed. Together with fish assemblages composition and individual metrics (richness, trophic composition, etc.), two fish indices (Basque AFI and Portuguese EFAI) have been investigated. Additionally, the response of five fish indices (AFI, EFAI, ELFI, TFCI, Z-EBI) were tested on a common dataset, within Portuguese estuaries, to check the time lag in the metrics’ response to different human pressures and the variability in the strength of responses to those pressures. This work also focuses on the sensitivity analysis of two European fish-based indices (French ELFI and British TFCI) to changes in their respective metric scores through their observed dynamic range. Sensitivity analyses were run simulating different scenarios of metric score changes, taking into consideration the relationship between metrics. This allowed the metrics with stronger influence in the index score and the resulting water body classification to be highlighted. Importantly, the identification of the most influential metrics could help to guide management efforts in terms of achieving GES by 2015. In general, the fish metrics and indices tested responded to anthropogenic pressures in the Atlantic estuarine sites, yet at the individual metrics level environmental chemical quality was the main driver for observed differences. Also, some metrics did not respond to pressures as expected, which is most likely related to sampling gear efficiency, namely the low capture efficiency of diadromous species with beam trawl. The cause-effect relationship study emphasized that fish-based indices developed to assess the water quality of estuarine systems did not detect all the pressures with the same sensitivity in terms of strength and time-lag, and gave more importance to some pressures, namely chemical pollution. The fish-based indices developed to assess the water quality of estuarine systems do not allow the individualization of pressure effects, which may constitute a problem to put forward the correct specific measures for management and rehabilitation of estuaries. On the other hand, some indices also do not seem relevant, in a short time, to detect changes of the ecological quality which may constitute a handicap for management or an indication for their restructuring. The sensitivity analysis indicates that a number of estuarine resident taxa, a number of estuarine-dependent marine taxa, a number of benthic invertebrate feeding taxa and a number of piscivorous taxa have the greatest influence on the TFCI classification. For the French index ELFI, the most influential metrics are mainly DT (total density) and DB (density of benthic species), followed by RT (total richness). These results suggest a high sensitivity of the quality indication provided by these indices on richness related aspects of the fish assemblages. Management should therefore prioritize efforts to conserve or restore estuarine attributes underpinning abundance and ecological diversity, for example the diversity of fish habitats, food resources and shelter or the hydrological integration between coastal and transitional waters.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

One hundred priority questions for advancing seagrass conservation in Europe

17 pages, 2 figures.-- Open AccessSeagrass meadows provide numerous ecosystem services including biodiversity, coastal protection, and carbon sequestration. In Europe, seagrasses can be found in shallow sheltered waters along coastlines, in estuaries & lagoons, and around islands, but their distribution has declined. Factors such as poor water quality, coastal modification, mechanical damage, overfishing, land-sea interactions, climate change and disease have reduced the coverage of Europe’s seagrasses necessitating their recovery. Research, monitoring and conservation efforts on seagrass ecosystems in Europe are mostly uncoordinated and biased towards certain species and regions, resulting in inadequate delivery of critical information for their management. Here, we aim to identify the 100 priority questions, that if addressed would strongly advance seagrass monitoring, research and conservation in Europe. Using a Delphi method, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers with seagrass experience from across Europe and with diverse seagrass expertise participated in the process that involved the formulation of research questions, a voting process and an online workshop to identify the final list of the 100 questions. The final list of questions covers areas across nine themes: Biodiversity & Ecology; Ecosystem services; Blue carbon; Fishery support; Drivers, Threats, Resilience & Response; Monitoring & Assessment; Conservation & Restoration; Governance, Policy & Management; and Communication. Answering these questions will fill current knowledge gaps and place European seagrass onto a positive trajectory of recoveryThis project was initiated and carried out under the EuroSea project using funding from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Oragnisation. Additional support was from the UK Natural Environment Research Council RESOW grant to Swansea University (NE/V016385/1). The EuroSea project is funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 862626. Thanks to Toste Tanhua and Emma Heslop for their supporting this process. Thanks are due to FCT/MCTES for the financial support to CESAM (UIDB/50017/2020 + UIDP/50017/2020 + LA/P/0094/2020), through PT national funds. Financial support from Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Technologia was also provided through the research contract to A.I. Sousa (CEECIND/00962/2017)Peer reviewe

Unpublished Mediterranean records of marine alien and cryptogenic species

Good datasets of geo-referenced records of alien species are a prerequisite for assessing the spatio-temporal dynamics of biological invasions, their invasive potential, and the magnitude of their impacts. However, with the exception of first records on a country level or wider regions, observations of species presence tend to remain unpublished, buried in scattered repositories or in the personal databases of experts. Through an initiative to collect, harmonize and make such unpublished data for marine alien and cryptogenic species in the Mediterranean Sea available, a large dataset comprising 5376 records was created. It includes records of 239 alien or cryptogenic taxa (192 Animalia, 24 Plantae, 23 Chromista) from 19 countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. In terms of records, the most reported Phyla in descending order were Chordata, Mollusca, Chlorophyta, Arthropoda, and Rhodophyta. The most recorded species was Caulerpa cylindracea, followed by Siganus luridus, Magallana sp. (cf. gigas or angulata) and Pterois miles. The dataset includes records from 1972 to 2020, with the highest number of records observed in 2018. Among the records of the dataset, Dictyota acutiloba is a first record for the Mediterranean Sea. Nine first country records are also included: the alga Caulerpa taxifolia var. distichophylla, the cube boxfish Ostracion cubicus, and the cleaner shrimp Urocaridella pulchella from Israel; the sponge Paraleucilla magna from Libya and Slovenia; the lumpfish Cyclopterus lumpus from Cyprus; the bryozoan Celleporaria vermiformis and the polychaetes Prionospio depauperata and Notomastus aberans from Malta

Ecological seasonal study of molluscs of the Ria de Ares Betanzos (Galicia, NW Spain)

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Restoring seagrass meadows in Basque estuaries: nature-based solution for successful management

Seagrass meadows provide a wide variety of ecosystem goods and services (biodiversity maintenance, carbon sequestration, sediment oxygenation and enrichment, filtering, coastal protection, and nursery area for other species). For this reason, they are areas of high economic development while historically highly impacted by human activity. Therefore, there is a growing need for the restoration and conservation of these habitat engineers as a nature-based solution for climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation. The Basque Country region (northern Spain) has experienced a decline in seagrass meadows driven by increases in nutrient concentrations and decreases in water clarity. In this region, only 3 out of its 12 estuaries currently host natural intertidal populations of the protected species Zostera noltei. However, there is written evidence of the previous presence of this species in other estuaries within the region. Despite significant improvement in water quality has been observed in most Basque estuaries, these plants show a low capacity for a successful natural recolonization, requiring human restoration planning and implementation. To ensure a successful seagrass restoration a plan is needed which encompasses four phases: feasibility and pre-project planning, project design, pre-restoration tasks, and restoration/monitoring. This work focuses on the first and second phases, which include the selection of the most suitable reception sites and restoration trials. Therefore, a restoration and monitoring plan is proposed for a Basque estuary which includes further involvement of local stakeholders (users, managers) to increase the probability of success

Benthic macroinfaunal communities of the pockmark fields in the south-eastern Bay of Biscay

Pockmarks are concave depressions on the sea bottom produced by fluid escape from subaqueous sediments which can be found worldwide in muddy and silt/clay sediments. Due to their morphological and geochemical characteristics, certain pockmarks play an important role in structuring benthic communities, and consequently, they have been proposed to be protected. The present research provides a characterisation of the benthic macrofauna composition in pockmark fields in the southeaster Bay of Biscay. A total of 11 samples were acquired in and close to pockmarks covering a range of depths of 414–992 m. The survey strategy considered the acquisition of one sample inside of each of the selected pockmarks and another sample near, but out of them. Collected macrofaunal organisms were identified at lowest taxonomical level (species) when possible, structural parameters were calculated and a hierarchical cluster analysis carried out with species data. Species density, biomass, richness, diversity and evenness were found to be higher in samples collected inside pockmarks in comparison to samples obtained outside but not statistically significant. This could be explained by the inactivity of the studied pockmarks, which do not offer/generate a particular environment with unusual characteristics that limit or enhance the development of specific species/groups with special traits.This work has been supported by ITSASTEKA (Fishing and Aquaculture Directorate; Environment, Territorial Planning, Agriculture and Fishing Department of the Basque Government) and LIFE IP PAF INTEMARES (LIFE15/IPE/ES/000012) projects. The Fundación Biodiversidad (Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment) was responsible for the coordination of INTEMARES project, involving different scientific institutions and NGOs. This is manuscript number 1197 from AZTI's Marine Research Division, Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA).Peer reviewe

Establishing a governance threshold in small-scale fisheries to achieve sustainability

Abstract The lack of effective governance is a major concern in small-scale fisheries. The implementation of governance that encompasses the three pillars of sustainability (social, economic, and ecological) is still a worldwide challenge. We examined nine stalked barnacle fisheries ( Pollicipes pollicipes ) across Southwest Europe to better understand the relationship between governance elements and sustainability. Our results show that nested spatial scales of management, the access structure, co-management, and fisher’s participation in monitoring and surveillance promote sustainability. However, it is not the mere presence of these elements but their level of implementation that drives sustainability. Efforts should be placed in the accomplishment of a minimum combination of local scales of management, access rights through individual quotas, instructive-consultative co-management and functional participation. Surpassing this threshold in future governance structures will start to adequately promote social, economic and ecologically sustainability in small-scale fisheries.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad | Ref. PCIN-2016-120Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades | Ref. FPU2016-04258European Research Council | Ref. n. 8679812Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia | Ref. UID / MAR / 04292/2019Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia | Ref. UIDP / 50017/2020?Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia | Ref. UIDB / 50017/202