Download 02 BEWG Report - Executive Summary

ICES BEWG REPORT 2014
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Executive summary
The Benthos Ecology Working Group (BEWG) was hosted by Ifremer and held its
2014 meeting at the Station marine de Dinard - CRESCO, both in Dinard, France. The
meeting was attended by 26 participants, representing 10 countries.
The meeting was structured along the four BEWG core business issues: Benthic longterm series and climate change, benthic indicators, species distribution modelling and
disentanglement of the link between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.
Six initiatives were further developed during the workshop:
•
Further planning of the ongoing work already initiated under the
SGCBNS.
•
Getting the Benthic Long-term Series Network (BeLTS-net) launched.
•
Initiation of the investigation of benthic indicators’ comparability and
complementarity.
•
Final revision of the BEWG review paper: “Species distribution modelling
and mapping in the marine environment and its relevance for ecosystem
management”.
•
Further development of the link between ecosystem functioning and benthic diversity.
•
Further development of the position paper on “Linking benthic ecology to
ecosystem services”.
Four new initiatives (case studies) were developed and launched during the workshop:
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Case study: “Towards the quantitative benthic species distribution modeling for ecosystem functioning: linking bioturbation potential with nitrate
cycling”.
•
Case study: “On the variability in expert assessment of benthic species tolerances / sensitivities, as used in several multimetric indices”.
•
Case study: “Towards efficient and effective monitoring programmes for
benthic multrimetric indices”.
•
Case study: “On biological trait analysis in benthic ecology”.