Download Integrated assessment and ecosystem overviews: North Sea

Integrated assessment and ecosystem overviews
Leonie Dransfeld
Marine Institute, Ireland
For International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES)
Integrated assessment and ecosystem overviews:
Integrated
Assessment
Ecosystem
Overviews
North Sea:
WGINOSE
Baltic Sea:
WGIAB
Western Waters:
WGEAWESS
WKECOVER
Aim of Ecosystem Descriptions
Progress towards the delivery of integrated
advice and regional assessments by ICES.
Potential problems with ecosystem overviews
• A lot of
information
• Difficult for the end
user
Clear definitions
Who is the audience?
What is the role of the ecosystem overviews?
Clear criteria
Who is the audience?
Internal:
Expert groups
Advisory com
Top down
Users
of
advice
External:
Client commissions
Bottom up
Role of Ecosystem Overviews
 Concise and informative introduction to ecoregions considered in the ICES advice
describe the location, scale, management and assessment boundaries of the
ecosystem and its relationship with other assessment and management areas
 Alert expert groups to key situations within the environment and ecosystems that
are expected to significantly influence their advice
 Describe the distribution of human activity and resultant pressure (in space and
time) on the environment and ecosystem
 Summarise trends in the state of the ecosystem (in space and time) and comment
on pressures accounting for changes in state.
Living documents
Proposed sections of the ecosystem overview, their purpose, audience and priority.
Criteria for inclusion of material

Does the proposed sub-section support one of the purposes of the overview?

Has the ICES community identified a strategic reason why this section should
be included in the overview?

Is the information in the proposed sub-section requested as advice by a client
commission?

Is the information needed to support other assessments requested by client
commissions?
Overview structure:
1. Ecoregion description
50°N
2. Key signals within the environment and ecosystem
40°N
3. Activity and pressure
30°N
4. State
20°N
20°W
10°W
0°
10°E
Regional Seas around Europe
Baltic Sea
Draft overviews:
North-east Atlantic Ocean
Iceland Sea
Norwegian Sea
Barents Sea
Greater North Sea, incl. the Kattegat and the English Channel
Celtic Seas
Bay of Biscay and the Iberian Coast
Macaronesia
Mediterranean Sea
Western Mediterranean Sea
Adriatic Sea
Ionian Sea and the Central Mediterranean Sea
Aegian-Levantine Sea
Baltic Sea
North Sea
Celtic Seas
Black Sea
20°E
30°E
Introduction to advice
 Map showing boundaries of ecosystem and depth contours
 Show relevant management and assessment regions
WKECOVER recommendations for
 Time of inclusion
 Frequency of update
 Responsibilities (context, data, data processing)
 Quality control
‘Recipe’ to support development of
overview subsections
Key signals-Physical and chemical oceanography
Focus only on changes in time
and space scales that have
consequences for subsequent
advice
Eg Baltic Sea
Eg North Sea
Areal extent of hypoxia (Example
map shows areal extent of
hypoxia (grey), anoxia (black)
and sampling stations (dots) in
the Baltic Sea during autumn
2010;
North Sea BT
EGs: WGOOFE/WGOH
Key signals in biota and biotic processes
Eg North Sea
Activity
 Maps showing frequency, density, or trends over time in the activity.
 Identify priorities regionally-where priority activities are those making greatest
contribution to pressure.
 Activities to consider include: Aquaculture, Fishing, Shipping, Renewable
energy, Non renewable energy, Telecons, Aggregates, Navigational dredging,
Coastal infrastructure, Land-based industry, Agriculture, Tourism/ recreation,
Military, Research, Desalination, Wastewater treatment, Carbon sequestration,
Collecting
Expert groups within/outside ICES:
WGIAB, WGINOSE, WGEAWESS, SGSPATIAL,
SSGHIE, WGMBRED, HELCOM, OSPAR
Pressure
The data in this section should show a summary of the pressures influential on the
ecological status
Longer term ambition for assessment of cumulative pressure from multiple activities
grouped according to Annex 3 Table 2 of MSFD.
Illustrative example of fishing pressure abrasion pressure map from Stelzenmuller et al 2010
Section 4
• 4.1 Biodiversity
• 4.2 Non-indigenous species
• 4.3 Commercially exploited fish and shellfish
• 4.5 Eutrophication (Pressure in 3)
• 4.6 Seabed integrity (Pressure in 3)
• 4.7 Hydrological conditions
• 4.8 Concentrations of contaminants in the environment and marine biota
(Pressure in 3)
• 4.9 Marine litter (Pressure in 3)
• 4.10 Effects of introduction of energy, including underwater noise (Pressure in
3)
4.1 Biodiversity
 Trends in biodiversity e.g. using proposed MSFD, DCF and OSPAR/HELCOM
indicators.
 For a range of ecosystem components, prioritising those that are linked to a
manageable human pressure?
 Protected areas classified by level of protection
 Listed species
 Data provision and product development on spatial/temporal trends by EGs
such as WGPE, WGZE, WGBE, WGMME, WGSE
4.3 Commercial Species
Summary of stock status in relation to reference points for populations of all
commercially exploited fish and shellfish drawing on single-species advice
 Fish stock summaries currently provided by Secretariat are a good start
 Proportion and numbers of species, by groups for which trends in state and
abundance/ fishing pressure are known (e.g. WKLIFE categories)
What are the next steps?
Section 1 developed for all ecoregions in 2013
Priority for ICES to make progress with developing Section 2 for advice in 2013
Sections 3 and 4 more longer-term
Review by the Regional Integrated Assessment Groups and the Regional Expert Groups
(fish stock assessment)
Input from WGECO- comment on structure and process
 Working Group on Operational Oceanographic Products for fisheries and environment
(WGOOFE), Working Group on Oceanic Hydrography (WGOH) and Expert Groups focusing
on ecosystem components: e.g. zooplankton, mammals, birds) for contributions to the
ecosystem overviews throughout 2013.
 The Workshop on update and calculation of the DCF indicators (WKIND)