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

The Management of Mediterranean Coastal Habitats: A Plea for a Socio-ecosystem-Based Approach

International audienceBiodiversity is often defined erroneously as the number of species. The higher the number of species, the better the status or the health of a habitat is considered to be. Managers, stakeholders and environmentalists worldwide often prioritize the ‘species approach’. The protection of an iconic and endearing species is obviously easier than that of tiny zooplankton species, although the latter may play a far more important role than the former in the functioning of healthy ecosystems. The species approach has been widely favoured compared to the ecosystem approach. However, ‘species-by-species’ management is unrealistic. The problem is that the management of natural habitats is often driven by environmentalist lobbies on the basis of taxonomy (e.g. mammals, turtles, birds, iconic fish, flowering plants, etc.) and disciplinary lobbies (biology, benthos, pelagos, contaminants, currents, etc.). Ecosystems are units of biological and spatial organization that include all the organisms, their interactions, the functional compartments they belong to, along with the components of the abiotic environment. The concept of the socio-ecosystem is useful insofar as it emphasizes the fact that man is part of ecosystems. Here, the authors make use of four case studies, in the Mediterranean Sea, in an attempt to demonstrate the interest of a comprehensive, socio-ecosystem-based approach in the field of environmental management. They also highlight the importance of tackling the coupling between benthic and pelagic ecosystems and between terrestrial and marine ecosystems