Ocean literacy in European Oceanographic Agencies: EuroGOOS recomendations for the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development 2021-2030. EuroGOOS Policy Brief

Postprin

Selecting ecosystem indicators for fisheries targeting highly migratory species: An EU project to advance the operationalization of the EAFM in ICCAT and IOTC

Several international legal agreements and guidelines have set the minimum standards and key principles to guide the implementation of an ecosystem approach to fisheries management (EAFM). However, the implementation of an EAFM in tuna Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) has been patchy and lack a long-term plan, vision and guidance on how to operationalize it. The Specific Contract N0 2 “selecting ecosystem indicators for fisheries targeting highly migratory species-” (SC02 project) under the Framework Contract - EASME/ EMFF/2016/008 provisions of Scientific Advice for Fisheries Beyond EU Waters- addresses several scientific challenges and provides insights to support the implementation of an EAFM through collaboration and consultation with the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) and the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC). Specifically, this project first highlights properties of success and best practices from other regions of the world in operationalizing the ecosystem approach that potentially could be transferred to ICCAT and IOTC. Second, it delivered a list of potential ecosystem indicators of relevance to tuna RFMOs (ICCAT and IOTC) that are suitable to track the impacts of fisheries targeting tuna and tuna-like species on the broader pelagic ecosystem. Third, it designed a general framework based on a rule-based decision tree to provide guidance on how reference points could be set and used for diverse types of ecosystem indicators. Fourth, it proposed candidate ecoregions within the Atlantic and Indian Oceans which could be used to guide region-based ecosystem plans, assessments and research to ultimately provide better ecosystem-based advice to inform fisheries management. Fifth, it developed two pilot ecosystem plans for two case study regions, the tropical ecoregion within the ICCAT convention area, and the temperate ecoregion within the IOTC convention area. At this stage, these pilot ecosystem plans aim to create awareness about the need for ecosystem planning, start a discussion about the elements that need to be part of a planning process, and initiate a discussion in ICCAT and IOTC about the potential needs of ecosystem plans and their function. Finally, this project provided recommendations to foster the potential development, use, and implementation of ecosystem plans in ICCAT and IOTC

Coordination of pollution-related MSFD measures in the Mediterranean - Where we stand now and insights for the future

Various pollutants keep threatening the environmental status of the Mediterranean Sea, while the Marine Strategy Framework Directive requires that Good Environmental Status needs to be achieved in European Seas by 2020. Previous reviews already established that the ambition levels of national Programmes of Measures (PoMs) are low. This study focuses on the analyses of the levels of coherence and coordination of the proposed PoMs in the Mediterranean, concentrating on nutrient, contaminant, and marine litter pollution, as well as the introduction of non-indigenous species. Coherence and pollinator analyses of the proposed measures of Mediterranean EU Member States (MS) were performed. The results demonstrate that while the current coordination between MS is almost non-existent, several measures are already addressing the same pressures in similar ways and could be easily coordinated on transnational level. Increased coordination and coherence of PoMs in the Mediterranean are vital for achieving good environmental status in future years. © 2020 Elsevier Lt

Programmes of measures of the marine strategy framework directive: Are they contributing to achieving good environmental status in the Mediterranean?

The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) is the piece of legislation with which the EU aims to achieve Good Environmental Status (GES) of its seas. This Directive requires Member States (MSs) to set up and implement Programmes of Measures (PoMs) to achieve this goal. This paper presents a catalogue as well as the analysis of the 535 measures proposed by the eight Mediterranean EU MSs to combat pollution and non-indigenous species and contribute to the GES of the Mediterranean Sea. The results reiterate the need for better coherence and coordination between MSs, also with non-EU countries in the preparation of the next iteration of PoMs. Only 5% of the measures applied have an effect beyond MSs´ marine waters jurisdiction, and a fifth of them lack linkages with any ecosystem component. The results point to gaps, while desired goals and recommendations will help policy makers to implement the and conceptualise measures. © 2020 Elsevier Lt

Rapport détaillant la sensibilité des indices poissons multimétriques aux pressions anthropiques et naturelles ainsi qu'aux variations individuelles des métriques poissons

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

Using a holistic ecosystem-integrated approach to assess the environmental status of Saronikos Gulf, Eastern Mediterranean

The holistic Nested Environmental status Assessment Tool (NEAT), developed for the integrated assessment of the status of marine waters, was applied to Saronikos Gulf, in the Eastern Mediterranean. We used different spatial and decadal time series data covering 9 biological and chemical ecosystem components, 24 indicators and 8 descriptors of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), to test its performance under different ecosystem approaches. The results were evaluated in relation to the anthropogenic pressures affecting the study area as well as the management measures taken, and compared to the results from previous studies. NEAT has shown clear spatial gradients differentiating the impacted and slightly-impacted areas, as well as the response of the ecosystem towards the management measures taken, demonstrating the most responsive and early warning ecosystem components. The application of NEAT to Saronikos Gulf classified the whole basin into good status, with the pelagic habitat components (fish, water column and phytoplankton ecosystem components) contributing strongly to the overall environmental status of the gulf. Sediment, benthic fauna and vegetation, mammals and alien species were the most impacted ecological components in Saronikos Gulf. The most affected areas, Elefsis Bay and Psittalia (wastewater submarine outfall), were assessed as in poor and moderate status, respectively. We conclude that: (i) it is possible to integrate data from different sources, spatial and temporal scales; (ii) this integration has permitted to undertake a real ecosystem assessment; (iii) there is no loss of information, allowing full tracking of problems and cases in no good status that should be addressed at lower levels (e.g. species or species groups); (iv) the results are related with the pressures identified; (v) the assessment demonstrates the recovery of the system and the time needed to recovery; and (vi) these results could be very useful for managers, policy makers and scientists when deciding the method to use in assessing the environmental status under the MSFD. © 2018 Elsevier Lt

Pan‐regional marine benthic cryptobiome biodiversity patterns revealed by metabarcoding Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures

International audienceAutonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS) have been applied worldwide to characterize the critical yet frequently overlooked biodiversity patterns of marine benthic organisms. In order to disentangle the relevance of environmental factors in benthic patterns, here, through standardized metabarcoding protocols, we analyze sessile and mobile (<2 mm) organisms collected using ARMS deployed across six regions with different environmental conditions (3 sites x 3 replicates per region): Baltic, Western Mediterranean, Adriatic, Black and Red Seas, and the Bay of Biscay. A total of 27473 Amplicon Sequence Variants (ASVs) were observed ranging from 1404 in the Black Sea to 9958 in the Red Sea. No ASVs were shared amongst all regions. The highest number of shared ASVs was between the Western Mediterranean and the Adriatic Sea (116) and Bay of Biscay (115). Relatively high numbers of ASVs (103), mostly associated with the genus Amphibalanus, were also shared between the lower salinity seas (Baltic and Black Seas). We found that compositional differences in spatial patterns of rocky-shore benthos are determined slightly more by dispersal limitation than environmental filtering. Dispersal limitation was similar between sessile and mobile groups, while the sessile group had a larger environmental niche breadth than the mobile group. Further, our study can provide a foundation for future evaluations of biodiversity patterns in the cryptobiome, which can contribute up to 70% of the local biodiversity

Selecting ecosystem indicators for fisheries targeting highly migratory species: An EU project to advance the operationalization of the EAFM in ICCAT and IOTC

Several international legal agreements and guidelines have set the minimum standards and key principles to guide the implementation of an ecosystem approach to fisheries management (EAFM). However, the implementation of an EAFM in tuna Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) has been patchy and lack a long-term plan, vision and guidance on how to operationalize it. The Specific Contract N0 2 “selecting ecosystem indicators for fisheries targeting highly migratory species-” (SC02 project) under the Framework Contract - EASME/ EMFF/2016/008 provisions of Scientific Advice for Fisheries Beyond EU Waters- addresses several scientific challenges and provides insights to support the implementation of an EAFM through collaboration and consultation with the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) and the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC). Specifically, this project first highlights properties of success and best practices from other regions of the world in operationalizing the ecosystem approach that potentially could be transferred to ICCAT and IOTC. Second, it delivered a list of potential ecosystem indicators of relevance to tuna RFMOs (ICCAT and IOTC) that are suitable to track the impacts of fisheries targeting tuna and tuna-like species on the broader pelagic ecosystem. Third, it designed a general framework based on a rule-based decision tree to provide guidance on how reference points could be set and used for diverse types of ecosystem indicators. Fourth, it proposed candidate ecoregions within the Atlantic and Indian Oceans which could be used to guide region-based ecosystem plans, assessments and research to ultimately provide better ecosystem-based advice to inform fisheries management. Fifth, it developed two pilot ecosystem plans for two case study regions, the tropical ecoregion within the ICCAT convention area, and the temperate ecoregion within the IOTC convention area. At this stage, these pilot ecosystem plans aim to create awareness about the need for ecosystem planning, start a discussion about the elements that need to be part of a planning process, and initiate a discussion in ICCAT and IOTC about the potential needs of ecosystem plans and their function. Finally, this project provided recommendations to foster the potential development, use, and implementation of ecosystem plans in ICCAT and IOTC