Nanopublications

Matches in Nanopublications for { ?s <http://schema.org/description> ?o ?g. }

Showing items 8,401 to 8,500 of ±12,089 with 100 items per page.

first
previous
next

AreaofInterest description "Area of Interest" assertion.
AreaofInterest description "Area of Interest" assertion.
AreaofInterest description "Area of Interest" assertion.
AreaofInterest description "Area of Interest" assertion.
AreaofInterest description "Area of Interest" assertion.
Polarization description "Polarization" assertion.
Polarization description "Polarization" assertion.
Polarization description "Polarization" assertion.
Polarization description "Polarization" assertion.
Polarization description "Polarization" assertion.
Polarization description "Polarization" assertion.
Polarization description "Polarization" assertion.
Polarization description "Polarization" assertion.
ed9a0610-c7e2-4dc1-8d89-f0d8bdd2bc4a description "This is the result of the SatCen Change Detection service of the EVER-EST VRC for Land Monitoring" assertion.
34af5b35-dabb-421d-af83-58387f2152cc description "This is the result of the SatCen Change Detection service of the EVER-EST VRC for Land Monitoring" assertion.
92d87570-42e2-415c-8866-8cc5a5853804 description "This is the result of the SatCen Change Detection service of the EVER-EST VRC for Land Monitoring" assertion.
e561efb6-166b-4ee0-9d4a-33ba48611a81 description "This is the result of the SatCen Change Detection service of the EVER-EST VRC for Land Monitoring" assertion.
70820ee7-2aaf-4cd7-91cc-1d940a096d00 description "This is the result of the SatCen Change Detection service of the EVER-EST VRC for Land Monitoring" assertion.
480df888-9505-401f-82bc-d04290f9b609 description "This is the result of the SatCen Change Detection service of the EVER-EST VRC for Land Monitoring" assertion.
9da1a81d-12f2-43ab-94df-23566a9b7b97 description "This is the result of DIAPASON Service invoked via Jupyter" assertion.
d4ef0aaf-6830-4147-868b-91f2603e79a0 description "This is the result of DIAPASON Service invoked via Jupyter" assertion.
3ca878ef-81c7-48a7-acbf-b9c30e26e189 description "Daily Hazard Assessment (DHA) for 22 Dec 2016 which contains all contributing information including Flood Guidance Statement (FGS), National Severe Weather Warning Service (NSWWS) and Daily Landslide Hazard Assessment (DHLA)" assertion.
4aa7d1c5-2072-48f9-9334-160e7eed1fbb description "PDF document of Daily Hazard Assessment for 22 Dec 2016" assertion.
8b4bacb3-75cd-40fb-bf52-cc2069c1dd8e description "Historical maps comprise a lot of inherent information on natural environmental and anthropogenic changes. They are commonly the most important database for various spatial analyses of the land use as well as historical landscapes, urban development, influences of the economy development, toponyms changes, etc." assertion.
8b4bacb3-75cd-40fb-bf52-cc2069c1dd8e description "Historical maps comprise a lot of inherent information on natural environmental and anthropogenic changes. They are commonly the most important database for various spatial analyses of the land use as well as historical landscapes, urban development, influences of the economy development, toponyms changes, etc. " assertion.
1277baba-40e2-4800-9e59-90a0cf3b0467 description "georeferred historical map" assertion.
17162289-5309-49f7-a820-587513ebd185 description "original historical map digitalized" assertion.
fbcde5a7-515e-4035-8fa3-356db1929881 description "Dataset on Madrid Airport for Change Detection" assertion.
d7f69499-017b-4d33-bf14-9c8ba5db5a6e description "The result of the change detection over Madrid Airport, using Sentinel-1 GRD data. The image pair consists of acquisitions on 08-August and 20-August 2017." assertion.
9818f4df-2fcb-40d7-9ee9-a8165e49bc24 description "Change Detection over Madrid" assertion.
d1eca593-02c4-419d-9c5b-13bb9c56b225 description "Historical maps comprise a lot of inherent information on natural environmental and anthropogenic changes. They are commonly the most important database for various spatial analyses of the land use as well as historical landscapes, urban development, influences of the economy development, toponyms changes, etc." assertion.
d1eca593-02c4-419d-9c5b-13bb9c56b225 description "Historical maps comprise a lot of inherent information on natural environmental and anthropogenic changes. They are commonly the most important database for various spatial analyses of the land use as well as historical landscapes, urban development, influences of the economy development, toponyms changes, etc. " assertion.
7484643b-84a3-4828-948c-0b7d46d654c1 description "original historical map digitalized" assertion.
d6eacf57-82fa-4472-92d1-9df667347f34 description "georeferred historical map" assertion.
246cce20-2f36-4bfb-8de4-256d0dcbe60c description "Change Detection over Madrid" assertion.
3e2e4ab8-c5ba-40dc-b07a-2187dd250263 description "Change Detection over Madrid" assertion.
a8648abb-116c-4c46-b449-2ff53c8bf1da description "The EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (2008/56/EG; MSFD) creates a regulatory framework for action by all EU member states to achieve or maintain good environmental status in all European seas by 2020. For this reason, all marine states of the EU must implement the Directive by developing and implementing national strategies. To this effect, the MSFD assigns EU member states a major programme of activities in a very tight timeframe. Hence, by 2010, the Directive should actually be transposed into national law and EU-wide criteria and methodological standards should be laid down (including for marine species and habitats) by a range of working groups in the EU Commission and under regional marine conventions. Moreover tasks have to be completed by 2012. Those tasks include an initial assessment of marine waters, the determination of good environmental status and the establishment of environmental targets. Besides Member states must report by 2013 among other things on progress in establishing marine protected areas. Furthermore monitoring programmes must be established and implemented by 2014, and programmes of measures must be developed by 2015 and must enter into operation by 2016. Finally a good environmental status is to be achieved in all European seas by 2020. This contribution critically attends to the recently inured act modifying the German Federal Water Act 2010 as amended and promulgated on 6th October 2011 in order to implement the MSFD into national German Law. Thereby the focal point is especially on the question, whether the newly created legal construct of an "alternative legislation", used by the federal states, passes its "trial by fire"." assertion.
d9f1e775-fdd9-49f7-b016-e22a9ec48a5e description "During the 7th FW EU Programme, a large group of research institutions with a strong tradition in marine science designed PERSEUS, a policy-oriented, marine research project aimed at identifying human-derived pressures and their impacts in the Southern European Seas. PERSEUS is about gathering and analyzing the data on our marine ecosystems and developing recommendations to assist policy makers in the implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). In its initial phase, the project focuses on the analysis and evaluation of human pressures in selected coastal areas across the Mediterranean and Black Seas. This paper reports on the results about the chemical pollution pressure in the Gulf of Naples, one of the sites selected for the analysis, and surrounding waters of the Southern Tyrrhenian Sea. Based on a systematic up-to-date literature review, the paper brings together for the first time the available information on the presence, severity and distribution of contaminants on the site. In spite of methodological and sampling heterogeneity among studies, this review compiles the data in a harmonized and effective way, so that the current status, knowledge gaps and research priorities can be established. Thus, the review wishes not only to provide a contribution to the scientific community, but also to help to extract recommendations for mitigating pollution sources and risks in the area of concern. A similar process of analysis may be carried out for other areas and pressures in order to facilitate policy making at the European level. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved." assertion.
18abf6c9-cabb-4e6b-901b-157506171e61 description "Marine litter is a pervasive and complex societal problem but has no simple solution. Inadequate practices at all levels of production-use-disposal contribute to accumulation of waste on land and at sea. Enhanced societal awareness but also co-responsibility across different sectors and improved interactions between stakeholders are necessary. MARLISCO was a European initiative, which developed and implemented activities across 15 countries. It worked towards raising societal awareness and engagement on marine litter, through a combination of approaches: public exhibitions in over 80 locations; a video competition involving 2100 students; and a legacy of educational and decision-supporting tools. 12 national participatory events designed to facilitate dialogue on solutions brought together 1500 stakeholders and revealed support for cross-cutting, preventive measures. Evaluation during implementation shows that these activities are effective in improving individuals' perceptions about the problem but also commitment in being part of the solution. This paper summarises MARLISCO's approach and highlights a selection of outcomes. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
d82c1518-f3ca-488f-acea-546088a9634b description "During the implementation process of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), Member States are expected to cooperate and coordinate at the regional sea level as wells as arrange stakeholder involvement. However, the MSFD does not specify any governing structures to do so. The aim of this paper is to address these key challenges of the MSFD by developing four governance models for regional cooperation and assess their impact on governance performance. The four models are based on the building blocks of stakeholder involvement (low or high) and decision-making power (binding or nonbinding decisions): (1) Cross-border platforms; (2) Regional Sea Convention-PLUS; (3) Advisory Alliance and (4) Regional Sea Assembly. Secondly, the paper will do an ex ante assessment on how the alternative models will have an impact on governance performance. The assessment criteria for governance performance are: (a) costs to set up and run a model; (b) capacity to cooperate; (c) policy coordination; (d) institutional ambiguity; and (e) implementation drift. In addition to this assessment of the performance based on expert judgement (i.e. scientists of WP7 of the ODEMM project), 4 roundtable discussions have been undertaken in which stakeholders from the four regional seas did an assessment of the four models. The main conclusion is that increasing stakeholder participation, a much desired development in regional organisation of marine management as expressed by the stakeholder community, will increase the costs of the policy making process. If stakeholder participation is not embedded in a wider institutional setting in which the participation of stakeholders is directly related to the policy process and the degree to which decisions taken are binding, the increase of costs does not lead to a more smoothly running model. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
06573ae2-0628-4034-bc74-c9b839e31f12 description "The present work aims to show that high throughput imaging systems can be useful to estimate mesozooplankton community size and taxonomic descriptors that can be the base for consistent large scale monitoring of plankton communities. Such monitoring is required by the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) in order to ensure the Good Environmental Status (GES) of European coastal and offshore marine ecosystems. Time and cost-effective, automatic, techniques are of high interest in this context. An imaging-based protocol has been applied to a high frequency time series (every second day between April 2003 to April 2004 on average) of zooplankton obtained in a coastal site of the NW Mediterranean Sea, Villefranche Bay. One hundred eighty four mesozooplankton net collected samples were analysed with a Zooscan and an associated semi-automatic classification technique. The constitution of a learning set designed to maximize copepod identification with more than 10,000 objects enabled the automatic sorting of copepods with an accuracy of 91% (true positives) and a contamination of 14% (false positives). Twenty seven samples were then chosen from the total copepod time series for detailed visual sorting of copepods after automatic identification. This method enabled the description of the dynamics of two well-known copepod species, Centropages typicus and Temora stylifera, and 7 other taxonomically broader copepod groups, in terms of size, biovolume and abundance-size distributions (size spectra). Also, total copepod size spectra underwent significant changes during the sampling period. These changes could be partially related to changes in the copepod assemblage taxonomic composition and size distributions. This study shows that the use of high throughput imaging systems is of great interest to extract relevant coarse (i.e. total abundance, size structure) and detailed (i.e. selected species dynamics) descriptors of zooplankton dynamics. Innovative zooplankton analyses are therefore proposed and open the way for further development of zooplankton community indicators of changes. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V." assertion.
cec2434b-6490-4225-a6b3-7394e44c86b9 description "The acoustic impact of ships has gained growing attention during the last few years. The Europe-an Union within the MSFD and associated TG Noise has assigned the anthropogenic noise from shipping as one of the contributors to a downgrading of the environmental status. The assessment and the corresponding mitigation measures would have to be proposed by 2016 and put in force by 2020. Therefore, it is vitally important for the ship industry and regulatory bodies to have available measurement procedures enabling the correct estimation of underwater noise radiated by vessels. Some international standard bodies such as ANSI and ISO have already developed and are still developing procedures for civil applications to quantify the underwater noise emission of ships. However, there are aspects of these procedures that are not yet consolidated from a technical point of view like the uncertainty associated to the procedure, and topics that are not yet addressed, like measurements in shallow waters. In this regard, the AQUO project, in the scope of the FP7 Europe-an Research Framework, set as one of its targets the development of a new European standard for underwater noise measurements adapted to both, shallow and deep waters with a special emphasis on the assessment of the uncertainties. This paper is a follow-up to the one previously written by TSI identifying the sources of uncertainties of the current measurement procedures. It will firstly present the measurement procedure resulting from the research done in the AQUO project. Thanks to the collaboration agreement signed by BV and TSI, this procedure has been largely adopted by Bureau Veritas in its new rule note (NR 614) titled Underwater Radiated Noise. Finally, the paper will also present the outcomes of the theoretical and experimental studies of its associated sources of deviation trying to provide realistic values for the uncertainty and repeatability of the measurement procedure. Due to its impact on marine life, the abatement of the Underwater Radiated Noise by ships has become the most out-standing novelty and difficult challenge that the Shipbuilding industry has ever faced. Therefore, the industry is trying to provide new solutions in order to comply with the new directives and requirements having been recently developed and promoted by the EU, Marine Institutions and the scientific community." assertion.
26bd03df-df81-4738-b51e-5e60a3ead5b7 description "The need to implement Ecosystem-Based-Management (EBM) in marine ecosystems and the recent adoption of European Union directives, such as the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), make indicators that are able to describe ecosystem state particularly relevant. The trophodynamic context is promising in that it can define integrative ecosystem indicators from modelling and field data. Here we analyze energy accumulation across trophic levels (TLs), i. e. the accumulation of energy in various biomass components of an ecosystem. The analysis of biomass accumulation across TLs, previously applied to surveys and model output data, was applied to a time series (1970 to 2010) of landings in the Mediterranean Sea and its 8 sub-areas. The standardized cumulative biomass versus TL curves for each year were fit to a logistic function, revealing that the accumulation pattern was detectable using landings data and confirming prior patterns. Parameters describing the curve shape, i. e. basal biomass, inflection point and steepness, were considered as possible indicators for assessing changes of ecosystem state through time. These parameters were able to detect systems modification in terms of both space and time and exhibited differential sensitivity to external drivers. The inflection point was mainly fishery-driven, whereas steepness seems to respond to environmental features, indicating an ability to discriminate across major ecosystem drivers. The application of Monte Carlo un certainty analysis showed that all of the parameters are sufficiently robust to possible sampling errors in the TL assignment to the different taxa. Collectively, these results confirm the robustness of patterns for cumulative biomass across TL curves seen in a growing number of marine eco systems. These emergent features suggest that this approach could produce useful ecosystem indicators for the implementation of EBM and the MSFD." assertion.
19f2e294-d1d7-44b4-af71-1548dd701c8f description "There have been numerous anthropogenic-driven changes to our planet in the last half-century. One of the most evident changes is the ubiquity and abundance of litter in the marine environment. The EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD, 2008/56/EC) establishes a framework within which EU Member States shall take action to achieve or maintain good environmental status (GES) of their marine waters by 2020. GES is based on 11 qualitative descriptors as listed in Annex I of the MSFD. Descriptor 10 (D 10) concerns marine litter. As a follow-up to the related Commission Decision on criteria and methodological standards (2010/477/EU) in which 56 indicators for the achievement of GES are proposed, the EC Directorate-General for the Environment, on the request of the European Marine Directors, established a Technical Subgroup on Marine Litter (TSG ML) under the Working Group on GES. The role of TSG ML is to support Member States through providing scientific and technical background for the implementation of MSFD requirements with regard to D 10. Started in 2011, TSG ML provides technical recommendations for the implementation of the MSFD requirements for marine litter. It summarizes the available information on monitoring approaches and considers how GES and environmental targets could be defined with the aim of preventing further inputs of litter to, and reducing its total amount in, the marine environment. It also identifies research needs, priorities and strategies in support of the implementation of D 10. The work of TSG ML also focuses on the specification of monitoring methods through the development of monitoring protocols for litter in the different marine compartments, and for microplastics and litter in biota. Further consideration is being given to monitoring strategies in general and associated costs. Other priorities include the identification of sources of marine litter and a better understanding of the harm caused by marine litter." assertion.
ff3b991c-68dc-4766-baaa-e966197e64ae description "The German water management system has changed during the last decade. Initially it was focussing on the management of chemical pollution in water bodies only. This has now shifted to a management system using a holistic approach. The approach considers the entire catchment area and besides the management of chemical pollution takes also into account other anthropogenic pressures, such as structural changes and ecological degradation of waterbodies. This change of management strategy implemented through the Water Framework Directive (WFD) (and initiated in Brussels) continues within the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). The MSFD requires a cumulative assessment of land-based pressures in combination with the assessment of impacts from human activities at sea. These include (e. g.) threats to fish stock, bycatch and habitat destruction through fishing activities, noise pollution through shipping and ramming activities as well as the operation of offshore wind farms. The following describes the current status of the implementation of the two Directives and will outline similarities and differences between them." assertion.
3a13ca14-65ba-4c0d-b93d-db67532a6a4d description "The sustainable exploitation of marine ecosystem services is dependent on achieving and maintaining an adequate ecosystem state to prevent undue deterioration. Within the European Union, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requires member states to achieve Good Environmental Status (GEnS), specified in terms of 11 descriptors. We analyzed the complexity of social-ecological factors to identify common critical issues that are likely to influence the achievement of GEnS in the Northeast Atlantic (NEA) more broadly, using three case studies. A conceptual model developed using a soft systems approach highlights the complexity of social and ecological phenomena that influence, and are likely to continue to influence, the state of ecosystems in the NEA. The development of the conceptual model raised four issues that complicate the implementation of the MSFD, the majority of which arose in the Pressures and State sections of the model: variability in the system, cumulative effects, ecosystem resilience, and conflicting policy targets. The achievement of GEnS targets for the marine environment requires the recognition and negotiation of trade-offs across a broad policy landscape involving a wide variety of stakeholders in the public and private sectors. Furthermore, potential cumulative effects may introduce uncertainty, particularly in selecting appropriate management measures. There also are endogenous pressures that society cannot control. This uncertainty is even more obvious when variability within the system, e.g., climate change, is accounted for. Also, questions related to the resilience of the affected ecosystem to specific pressures must be raised, despite a lack of current knowledge. Achieving good management and reaching GEnS require multidisciplinary assessments. The soft systems approach provides one mechanism for bringing multidisciplinary information together to look at the problems in a different light." assertion.
7b6a2b71-f738-45ab-8eec-ddbbd66a4c68 description "Baseline data on the distribution, condition and extent of coralligenous and cave bioconcretions is one of the main requirements of the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) necessary to assess the achievement of a Good Environmental Status (GES) by 2020. In this study the potential of remote sensing and distribution modelling techniques to map, measure descriptors and choose indicators were tested, that could provide standard methods for the assessment of the health status and assist in monitoring activities. It is demonstrated how, by combining different methodologies, it is possible to map the distribution of the bioconcretions with acceptable accuracy and to discriminate the main habitat types and fades. In addition, zonal statistical analysis revealed that fishing activities primarily coincide with areas of high coverage of the bioconcretions. Results demonstrate that the presented methodology is a valuable simple tool to assess several MSFD descriptors and indicators, and could strengthen management efficiency when making informed, ecologically relevant decisions. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
2f9090d8-5be4-4ed6-8c39-cd6553e11920 description "The European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requires EU Member States (MS) to achieve Good Environmental Status (GEnS) of their seas by 2020. We address the question of what GEnS entails especially with regard to the level at which targets are set (descriptors, criteria, indicators), to scales for assessments (regional, sub-divisions, site-specific), and to difficulties in putting into practice the GEnS concept. We propose a refined and operational definition of GEnS, indicating the data and information needed to all parts of that definition. We indicate the options for determining when GEnS has been met, acknowledge the data and information needs for each option, and recommend a combination of existing quantitative targets and expert judgement. We think that the MSFD implementation needs to be less complex than shown for other similar directives, can be based largely on existing data and can be centred on the activities of the Regional Seas Conventions. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
73e90c0d-b829-49f0-856f-cc1d0d7d13fd description "The aim of this note is to discuss the relevance of the interaction/integration of monitoring of contaminants for the protection of the marine environment and for human health safety (descriptors 8 and 9, respectively) within the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). The identification of possible relations between contaminant levels in sediments and tissues of fish and other seafood, as well as the association of those levels to pollution sources, are major challenges for marine researchers. The Spanish initial assessment in the North-East Atlantic marine region was used as an example to show some gaps and loopholes when dealing with the relationship between descriptors 8 and 9. The main problem to deal with is that monitoring programmes intended for the assessment of marine environmental quality and for human health safety usually apply different approaches and methodologies, and even different tissues are analysed in some species (mainly fish). It is therefore recommended to make a profound revision of current sampling strategies, procedures and methodologies, including the selection of target species and tissues and to improve the traceability of samples of fish and other seafood for human consumption. On the other hand, despite the scope of descriptor 9 which is limited to commercially relevant species, this fact should not be an obstacle in the application of the 'ecosystem approach' within the MSFD. In order to appropriately solve these shortcomings, an information exchange system between authorities dealing with descriptors 8 and 9 should be strongly encouraged for the next steps of the MSFD's implementation." assertion.
bab95c54-b100-4a73-b828-1b3ed35aa1e8 description "The aim of this work is to assess trace metal pollution status (Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn) in the waters of Saronikos Gulf, Greece, in line with the WFD and MSFD European Directives, based on data collected over a decade (2000-2010). Dissolved metal background levels are estimated for the first time for Greek marine waters and the upper limits are: Cd: 0.574 nmol L-1; Cu: 8.26 nmol L-1; Ni: 7.94 nmol L-1; Pb: 2.60 nmol L-1; Zn: 115 nmol L-1. The variability of dissolved and particulate metals reflected the presence of several point sources and revealed the importance of natural mechanisms acting as non-point sources. The status of Saronikos Gulf is classified as 'High' for most metals studied. An exception to this is the enclosed Elefsis Bay where Cu, Ni and Zn concentrations are found above background. Our work will assist the implementation of WFD and MSFD directives in Greece. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
58c2467f-3c52-45fc-8955-0cc2f4ddf07e description "The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requires EU member states (MS) to develop and implement marine strategies containing programs of measures to protect and preserve the marine environment. Prior to their implementation, impact assessments, including Cost-Benefit-Analyses (CBA), need to be carried out. While the costs of introducing such measures are often relatively easy to determine, the economic valuation of the benefits derived from environmental improvements is much more challenging, particularly in the marine context. Still, it remains an important prerequisite for conducting CBA. The aim of this paper is to evaluate to what extent benefits can be quantified for use in CBA focusing on the German marine waters. The results indicate that there are still considerable gaps in the scientific knowledge about many of the pressures mentioned in the MSFD. Moreover, few economic studies exist that evaluate the benefits of marine protection measures, and many of them are not applicable in the German context. In addition, there is the risk that some benefits accruing from marine protection measures are systematically omitted in CBA. This raises the question to what extent comprehensive CBAs as required by the MSFD are possible in Germany, but also in other EU MS. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
3e3863b6-1fc3-4bb1-8ae2-780ea60df9c0 description "The large fish indicator (LFI) is a size-based indicator of fish community state. In the North Sea, the LFI is already established as the fish community's Ecological Quality Objective (OSPAR-EcoQO). The LFI has also been proposed as an indicator for food webs and for monitoring of biodiversity in European regional seas. The LFI was developed based on the entire North Sea fish community, which ignores the differences between the southern and the northern fish communities from the International Bottom Trawl Survey (IBTS) data. In this study, we have calculated LFIs based on IBTS and the Beam Trawl Survey (BTS), which target different components of the fish community and we test whether the LFI responds to changes in fishing pressure. The results did not confirm our expectation of a negative correlation between the pressure and state. We found a positive relationship between the IBTS-based LFI and the roundfish fishing mortality as well as an inverse relationship between the BTS-based LFI and the flatfish fishing mortality. The differences in the relationships between the IBTS- and BTS-based LFI and the respective roundfish-averaged and flatfish-averaged fishing mortality confirmed the spatial differences between the North Sea roundfish and flatfish fish communities. Although previous relationships between the LFI and the fishing pressure involved lengthy time-lags (10-12 years), we found shorter responsiveness of the LFI of 1-2 years. Further understanding of the ecological, environmental and anthropogenic factors affecting the LFI is required before ecosystem objectives can be set within the MSFD. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved." assertion.
14720183-a17e-418f-8432-884f6652df4e description "In the Baltic Sea, the pikeperch is one of the commercially important coastal fish species. Most of the local pikeperch stocks in this area can be classified as data-limited. There is an increasing need to monitor the state of all commercial fish stocks in European waters due to the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). Proper stock assessment is not required in all cases, and alternative and less data demanding approaches and indicators can also be applied. In this study, we combined data on three of the best-studied coastal pikeperch stocks in the northern Baltic Sea to evaluate the performance of length at maturity indicators. A connection was found between intensive selective fishing and the length at maturity (TL50) of female pikeperch. Power analysis indicated that a sample size of 200-400 females, or around 35 similar to 70 samples per year, produces reasonable and almost maximal precision when determining the six-year mean TL50 for a stock. Our analysis also demonstrated that in cases where a monitored parameter is annually variable, an increase in the annual sample size does not continuously yield higher precision in the long-term mean, but it is crucial that samples are collected annually. We conclude that TL50 is a promising and cost-efficient indicator of the effects of fisheries on the maturation of coastal pikeperch stocks. This indicator could be further tested after a few years when more data become available. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved." assertion.
ecf79b35-2b93-480f-bbaf-a0b315bc6888 description "PERSEUS project aims to identify the most relevant pressures exerted on the ecosystems of the Southern European Seas (SES), highlighting knowledge and data gaps that endanger the achievement of SES Good Environmental Status (GES) as mandated by the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). A complementary approach has been adopted, by a meta-analysis of existing literature on pressure/impact/knowledge gaps summarized in tables related to the MSFD descriptors, discriminating open waters from coastal areas. A comparative assessment of the Initial Assessments (IAs) for five SES countries has been also independently performed. The comparison between meta-analysis results and IAs shows similarities for coastal areas only. Major knowledge gaps have been detected for the biodiversity, marine food web, marine litter and underwater noise descriptors. The meta-analysis also allowed the identification of additional research themes targeting research topics that are requested to the achievement of GES. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license" assertion.
07df4cdd-8414-4847-ab4b-2e5fbb6d647a description "Demersal trawling impacts extensively on the seabed, and the extent and frequency of this impact can be assessed using Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) data (positional data of fishing vessels). Existing approaches interpolate fishing tracks from consecutive VMS locations (track interpolation) and/or aggregate VMS point data in a spatial grid (point summation). Track interpolation can be quite inaccurate with the current 2-hour time interval between VMS records, leading to biased estimates. Point summation approaches currently only produce relative estimates of impact and are highly sensitive to the grid size chosen. We propose an approach that provides absolute estimates of trawling impact from point data and is not sensitive to an arbitrary choice of grid-cell size. The method involves applying a nested grid and estimating the swept area (area covered by fishing gear) for each VMS point. We show that the ratio of the swept area to the surface area of a cell can be related to the proportion of the seabed that was impacted by the gear a given number of times. We validate the accuracy of this swept-area ratio approach using known vessel tracks and apply the method to international VMS data in the Celtic Sea." assertion.
b41e7d5f-6c7c-462c-9eff-152ca9c2fa6d description "More than 60 marine non-indigenous species (NIS) have been removed from previous lists and 84 species have been added, bringing the total to 986 alien species in the Mediterranean [(775 in the eastern Mediterranean (EMED), 249 in the central Mediterranean (CMED), 190 in the Adriatic Sea (ADRIA) and 308 in the western Mediterranean (WMED)]. There were 48 new entries since 2011 which can be interpreted as approximately one new entry every two weeks. The number of alien species continues to increase, by 2-3 species per year for macrophytes, molluscs and polychaetes, 3-4 species per year for crustaceans, and 6 species per year for fish. The dominant group among alien species is molluscs (with 215 species), followed by crustaceans (159) and polychaetes (132). Macrophytes are the leading group of NIS in the ADRIA and the WMED, reaching 26-30% of all aliens, whereas in the EMED they barely constitute 10% of the introductions. In the EMED, molluscs are the most species-rich group, followed by crustaceans, fish and polychaetes. More than half (54%) of the marine alien species in the Mediterranean were probably introduced by corridors (mainly Suez). Shipping is blamed directly for the introduction of only 12 species, whereas it is assumed to be the most likely pathway of introduction (via ballasts or fouling) of another 300 species. For approximately 100 species shipping is a probable pathway along with the Suez Canal and/or aquaculture. Approximately 20 species have been introduced with certainty via aquaculture, while >50 species (mostly macroalgae), occurring in the vicinity of oyster farms, are assumed to be introduced accidentally as contaminants of imported species. A total of 18 species are assumed to have been introduced by the aquarium trade. Lessepsian species decline westwards, while the reverse pattern is evident for ship-mediated species and for those introduced with aquaculture. There is an increasing trend in new introductions via the Suez Canal and via shipping." assertion.
633dcee1-87b3-4e90-b46b-a4534fc88253 description "In its decision (20101477/EU) relating to the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD, 2008/56/EC), the European Commission identified the following points as focuses for monitoring: (i) 10.1.1: Trends in the amount, source and composition of litter washed ashore and/or deposited on coastlines, (ii) 10.1.2: Trends in the amount and composition of litter in the water column and accumulation on the sea floor, (iii) 10.1.3: Trends in the amount, distribution and composition of micro-particles (mainly microplastics), and (iv) 10.2.1: Trends in the amount and composition of litter ingested by marine animals. Monitoring the impacts of litter will be considered further in 2014. At that time, the strategy will be discussed in the context of the Mediterranean Sea, providing information on constraints, protocols, existing harm and research needed to support monitoring efforts. The definition of targets and acceptable levels of harm must take all factors into account, whether entanglement ingestion, the transport and release of pollutants, the transport of alien species and socioeconomic impacts. It must also reflect on the practical deployment of "ingestion" measures (10.2.1). The analysis of existing data will reveal the potential and suitability of some higher trophic level organisms (fish, turtles, birds and mammals) for monitoring the adverse effects of litter. Sea turtles appear to be useful indicator species, but the definition of an ecological quality objective is still needed, as well as research on alternative potential indicator species. (c) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
3440fe96-681c-46ea-a620-694cf56de70d description "Small- and medium-size rectangular rooms have a strong influence on the low-frequency performance of loudspeakers. A simulation program based on the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method is introduced to analyze the sound field produced by loudspeakers in rectangular rooms at low frequencies. A detailed-analysis in the time and frequency domains is presented by using the mean Sound field deviation (MSFD), the cumulative spectral decay (CSD), and clarity. Typical scenarios of one subwoofer and two subwoofers are inspected by simulation in a virtual room." assertion.
da830160-b6be-4aa5-9852-bdf6861cbdfb description "Zooplankton present characteristics of high interest in the frame of investigation for organisms sensitive to environmental changes and/or anthropogenic pressures. Such indicators are particularly needed in the present context of European legislation (Marine Strategy Framework Directive). However, zooplankton have not been given the interest they should have in regards to these issues. The aim of the present study is to provide an attempt of proposition of indicators of good environmental status and associated thresholds based on zooplankton data. Zooplankton time-series (2002-2013) from the Toulon Bay in the Mediterranean was used. This time-series presents the great characteristics that the sampling has be done jointly in two areas of the Bay of Toulon known to differ in term of anthropogenic pressures. The study focus on the copepod assemblage and different potential indicators are tested: ratio of copepod families on total copepod and diversity index (Pielou's evenness). The indicators relevance was evaluated per season by looking at the importance of the overlapping region between density's distributions for each indicator in both bays. This methodology well-recognized is commonly used, particularly in the medical sector, for a long time. The results show that the Oithonidae relative abundance and the Pielou's evenness index are the best indicators of anthropogenic pollution for this case study. Thresholds related to the selected indicators are also proposed in order to characterize the degree of anthropogenic pressure for the Toulon Bay and to provide a first evaluation for potential environmental management. Applicability of the selected indicators and future development needed are also discussed. This study is a first step in the investigation for operational zooplankton indicators and should open the way for additional studies in coastal anthropized area such as the Mediterranean coast where it is more urgently needed. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
c91a8803-cadf-427c-8c2e-aa1e04aee183 description "The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD, 2008/56/EC) is focused on protection, preservation and restoration of the marine environment by achieving and maintaining Good Environmental Status (GES) by 2020. Within this context, this paper presents a methodological approach for a fast and repeatable monitoring that allows quantitative assessment of seabed abrasion pressure due to recreational boat anchoring. The methodology consists of two steps: a semi-automatic procedure based on an algorithm for the ship detection in SAR imagery and a statistical model to obtain maps of spatial and temporal distribution density of anchored boats. Ship detection processing has been performed on 36 ASAR VV-pol images of Liguria test site, for the three years 2008, 2009 and 2010. Starting from the pointwise distribution layer produced by ship detection in imagery, boats points have been subdivided into 4 areas where a constant distribution density has been assumed for the entire period 2008-2010. In the future, this methodology will be applied also to higher resolution data of Sentinel-1 mission, specifically designed for the operational needs of the European Programme Copernicus. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
57eb2e32-457c-4053-b148-bfb7a07d998c description "For the ecosystem approach to fisheries management, understanding population dynamics and ecosystem resilience in response to the landing obligation acted by the reform of the European Common Fishery Policy (CFP) is currently an important avenue of research. This study attempts to assess the impact of the new CFP on marine food webs. Total carbon and nitrogen loss induced by a discard ban were estimated for the ecosystem of the Bay of Biscay based on French At-Sea Observer data and carbon and nitrogen content of discarded fish. Changes in predator diets were estimated by comparing two Bayesian mixing models, one mimicking the current situation and the second the application of the new CFP (removing the discarded species that would be landed from the model). Results illustrate a substantial shift in predation effort toward remaining available prey. The impact of changes in diet on individual and population health and on ecosystem functioning are important issues that remain to be assessed. A sister study could be carry out in another ecoregion, at a finer spatial scale in order to compare impacts and ecosystem responses. European monitoring programs such as DC-MAP and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) would help us to gain an understanding of how the food web would reorganize itself. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
b38df6e1-16d6-4d65-bc78-585d37d4ca93 description "The history of the river Elbe's pollutant load goes back more than 100 years. At least since the mid-19th century, the pollution of the Elbe has caused occasional and partial disruptions of the drinking water production. The increasing discharge of insufficiently treated industrial and municipal wastewater in the first half of the 20th century seriously impaired further relevant utilisations. The extremely high phenol load, for instance, caused the typical smell of the Elbe that is preserved in old sediments. As from the mid-19th century, fish from the Elbe was no longer edible. Depending on the type of pollutant and the sub-catchment, the period 1950-1990 marks the maximum pollutant load of the rivers Elbe, Saale and Mulde. Notably the collapse of the industry combined with a conversion of production in the remaining companies, the extensive structural transformation of agriculture, area-wide construction of new sewage plants and refitting of existing plants, resulted in a major improvement of the pollution load in the entire Elbe catchment in the 1990ies. The situation has further improved ever since the founding of the International Commission for the protection of the Elbe river (IKSE), accompanied by the establishment and implementation of action programmes aiming at the reduction of pollutants. However, further reduction has slowed down since the turn of the millennium. In the recent years, not only a stagnation of the pollution level could be observed, but even a partial deterioration. The objective of the WFD, to reach a good water quality by 2015, is failed in the entire catchment. Safely using the Elbe sediments for agricultural purposes, as laid down by the IKSE when it was founded, has been impossible so far, The sediment-bound transport of pollutants is one of the reasons why the good chemical status compliant with the EU-WFD in the Elbe catchment and the North Sea (concurrent with other river inputs) in line with the EU-Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) is failed. Further measures of supraregional impact need to be taken to achieve a good material quality of suspended matter /sediments in the foreseeable future. A catchment-wide cooperation in water management aiming at pollution reduction within the scope of a supportive community is the only viable approach. This requires both temporal and spatial monitoring of all relevant uses across the entire river and its wetlands. Based on these claims on water utilization, sediment quality targets need to be derived and bindingly defined. The joint improvement of sediment quality is to be acknowledged as an essential element of the 1:1 implementation of the WED. Subject to strict accordance with and systematic implementation of the recommendations for action made by the sediment management concepts of the FGG Elbe (River Basin Commission Elbe) and IKSE (International Commission for the Protection of the Elbe River), it can be expected that the majority of the currently Elbe specific inorganic and organic pollutants will (at least) fall below the upper threshold value, at the latest by the end of the third management cycle in keeping with WFD. This would mean that there would be no relevant restrictions to any significant uses. To achieve a generally good sediment quality, i.e. compliance with all lower threshold values pursuant to FGG ELBE (2013a) or IKSE (2014), would require further sanitation measures." assertion.
9c62a524-cc2f-4558-963a-a7336a1059c3 description "The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requires the assessment of the environmental status in relation to human pressures. In this study the biodiversity of the cetacean community is proposed as MSFD descriptor of the environmental status and its link with anthropogenic pressures is investigated. Functional groups are generally favoured over indicator species since they are thought to better reflect to anthropogenic stressors. Cetaceans are in many situations the most well known component of pelagic ecosystems. Their habitat requirements are known and can be used to evaluate the theoretical biodiversity that should be expected in a certain area. The deviations between the theoretical biodiversity and the actual biodiversity may be used to detect the impacts of human activities. Based on this analysis fishery resulted to be by far the most significant of the existing pressures. Among all the species, bottlenose dolphin was found the most correlated with the fishery sector dynamics. (c) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
10d78d4d-15ca-4158-a249-ea49e8836266 description "The Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) are the European umbrella regulations for water systems. It is a challenge for the scientific community to translate the principles of these directives into realistic and accurate approaches. The aim of this paper, conducted by the Benthos Ecology Working Group of ICES, is to describe how the principles have been translated, which were the challenges and best way forward. We have tackled the following principles: the ecosystem-based approach, the development of benthic indicators, the definition of 'pristine' or sustainable conditions, the detection of pressures and the development of monitoring programs. We concluded that testing and integrating the different approaches was facilitated during the WFD process, which led to further insights and improvements, which the MSFD can rely upon. Expert involvement in the entire implementation process proved to be of vital importance. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
da3b7b8a-a877-4cdd-a4cd-e1c775cc7ec6 description "The increasing degradation of marine ecosystems as a result of increasing impact caused by anthropogenic pressures, urges for well-founded knowledge to develop efficient tools to appraise the quality status of fish assemblages, as required by the "Marine Strategy Framework Directive". This study analyzed the structural and functional response of rocky fish assemblages to several pressures on the Portuguese coast, i.e. fishing, sewage discharges, port activities and thermal effluent, by selecting fish-based metrics that best distinguished disturbed from control areas. One of the novel aspects of this research is the integrated assessment made through the analysis of several metrics representing numerous attributes of fish assemblages (namely diversity, abundance, trophic structure, mobility, resilience, habitat association, nursery function), which contrasts with the most commonly used approaches that in general focus on fish species/families. PERMANOVA results showed significant differences on metrics composition for all pressures with the exception of the thermal effluent. Moreover, two major patterns of stress were identified: (1) selective pressure, which affects differentially the fish assemblages (fishing): (2) broad-range pressure, which affects the entire fish assemblage with metrics of several attributes (e.g. structure, resilience, trophic guilds, nursery function) responding to its presence (sewage discharges, port activities). Taking into account the sensitivity results (discriminant analysis and Mann-Whitney test), biological meaning and redundancy with other metrics (Spearman correlations), the following metrics were selected as the most suitable to detect changes on temperate reef fish assemblages: "density of generalist individuals", "density of territorial individuals", "density of large individuals with medium to high commercial value (>20 cm)". "density of juveniles" and metrics relative to trophic guild (except zoo-planktivores). Since metrics grouped species that have some degree of functional overlap, the present approach was useful to understand human-induced changes at the assemblage level, contributing for the future use of marine fishes as biological indicators. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
209fc7c5-56b2-443e-a13a-7d5f83b9eb25 description "An intercomparison exercise on passive samplers (PSs) was organized in summer 2010 to measure selected metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and pesticides in surface waters. Various PSs were used and compared at two river sites and one marine lagoon. A total of 24 laboratories participated. We present selected significant results from this exercise, including discussion on quality assurance and quality control for PSs, the interlaboratory variability of field blanks, time weighted average water concentrations and their uncertainties, the representativity of samples from Diffusive Gradient in Thin film, the ability of PSs to achieve lower limits of detection, PAH fingerprints in various PSs compared with spot samples, and the relevance of the permeability reference compound approach to the Polar Organic Chemical Integrative Sampler with pesticides. These in situ intercomparison exercises should enable progress on the harmonization of practices for use of passive sampling, especially for priority chemical monitoring and regulatory programs in compliance with the European Union's Water Framework Directive and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
a1e0aa7b-8d10-4cfc-96bb-6fbbaa1913a3 description "Different dolphin and tuna species have frequently been reported to aggregate in areas of high frontal activity, sometimes developing close multi-species associations to increase feeding success. Aerial surveys are a common tool to monitor the density and abundance of marine mammals, and have recently become a focus in the search for methods to provide fisheries-independent abundance indicators for tuna stock assessment. In this study, we present first density estimates corrected for availability bias of fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) and striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba) from the Golf of Lions (GoL), compared with uncorrected estimates of Atlantic bluefin tuna (ABFT; Thunnus thynnus) densities from 8 years of line transect aerial surveys. The raw sighting data were further used to analyze patterns of spatial co-occurrence and density of these three top marine predators in this important feeding ground in the Northwestern Mediterranean Sea. These patterns were investigated regarding known species-specific feeding preferences and environmental characteristics (i. e. mesoscale activity) of the survey zone. ABFT was by far the most abundant species during the surveys in terms of schools and individuals, followed by striped dolphins and fin whales. However, when accounted for availability bias, schools of dolphins and fin whales were of equal density. Direct interactions of the species appeared to be the exception, but results indicate that densities, presence and core sighting locations of striped dolphins and ABFT were correlated. Core sighting areas of these species were located close to an area of high mesoscale activity (oceanic fronts and eddies). Fin whales did not show such a correlation. The results further highlight the feasibility to coordinate research efforts to explore the behaviour and abundance of the investigated species, as demanded by the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD)." assertion.
58ec69c6-68aa-4bf8-9c58-d7d453810828 description "Through implementing environmental Directives, Europe has moved towards coordinated and integrated catchment-to-coast management, following the most novel legislation on ecosystem-based approaches worldwide. The novel joint synthesis of this direction reviewed here allows us to regard the Water Framework Directive (WFD) as a 'deconstructing structural approach' whereas the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) is a 'holistic functional approach', i.e. the WFD has split the ecosystem into several biological quality elements, then it compares the structure of these (such as species complement) individually before combining them and attempting to determine the overall condition. In contrast the MSFD concentrates on the set of 11 descriptors which together summarize the way in which the whole system functions. We emphasize that both Directives are frameworks on which many other directives are linked but that they need to be fully and seamlessly integrated to give a land to open sea system of assessment and management. Hence, by taking account of the experience gained in the WFD implementation, together with that from regional sea conventions, such as OSPAR (North East Atlantic) or HELCOM (Baltic Sea), we propose in this contribution an integrative approach for the environmental status assessment, within the MSFD. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
40fe8f7f-ce35-43fa-8b8f-92860a6b65b0 description "The quality of biological data has gained recognition as an essential part of international monitoring programmes, in response to the demand for strategic environmental evaluations such as the EU WFD, the MSFD and informed decisions for environmental sound management. The paper presents the results of an intercalibration exercise among four Black Sea phytoplankton laboratories (NIMRD-RO, IBSS-LTKR, IO-RAS - RUS and IO-BAS - BLG) conducted under SESAME FP6 Project with the objectives: 1) to assess the degree of comparability of phytoplankton and chlorophyll a data produced by routine in-house methods; 2) to formulate recommendations for progress towards harmonization of the research methodology in the Black Sea. The statistical treatment of the results reveal that at the level of total phytoplankton abundance and biomass as well as chlorophyll a the data were in a good agreement, while for some taxonomic classes (Prymnesiophyccae and small flagellates) the differences were significant. The counted sample volume proves essential for detection of species diversity and the methods of species specific biovolume measurements - for the total biomass. As a follow up Guidelines for QC/QA of phytoplankton data and check-list with suggested shapes for biovolume calculation were produced under UP-Grade Black Sea SCENE FP7 Project that offer key options for progress." assertion.
dad21775-a219-4b6c-ba0b-cb540271ad3f description "Recently, in the engineering hydrology, Johnson S-B distribution has been increasingly used as a distribution law for average annual discharges of a flow. It is the first time the authors of the present paper have taken Johnson S-B distribution as a distribution law for different elements of the water quality in the water reservoirs of Georgia including coastal waters of the Black Sea. The research has been conducted with the help of EU funded project "PERSEUS" and taking into account the principles of MSFD to diversify the methods of hydrochemical parameters analysis. Compared to other types of distribution, the advantage of Johnson S-B distribution is that the given distribution describes the process of variation of different hydrochemical elements in the water pretty well, can take various forms, while plotting the curves of distribution density and provision is much easier with Johnson S-B distribution than with other types of distribution. Besides, Johnson S-B distribution has a simple relation with normal sequence and it is simple and convenient to model artificial series. One of the major issues with using Johnson S-B distribution is the identification of the upper and lower limits of a random variable. Therefore, it is assessed in detail for different hydrochemical elements in a water reservoir. The limits of Johnson S-B distribution for hydrochemical elements were assessed by method of choice provided the distribution curve of the statistical provision values was maximally close to the even distribution, and were later assessed with the Kolmogorov criterion." assertion.
95789f53-6896-47a8-a46c-24084506028a description "The ambitious Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) has been the focus of much marine research across Europe in the pursuit of achieving Good Environmental Status in the four European Union marine regions; Baltic Sea, Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and North-east Atlantic. This research addresses the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) of the current European marine governance structures and its relationship to implement the MSFD. Results of the SWOT analysis were acquired through a combination of approaches with MSFD experts and stakeholders including: 30 face-to-face interviews, an online survey with 264 stakeholder respondents and focus groups within each European marine region. The SWOT analysis concurrently identifies common strengths and weakness and key governance issues for implementing the MSFD for European marine regions. This paper forms one assessment within the governance component of the Options for Delivering Ecosystem Based Marine Management (ODEMM) project and presents timely issues that can be of benefit to national and European Union policy makers. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
ea0daa5f-ed5b-48c8-9417-f457fc4f16ae description "European marine policies have recently been consolidated, and the scalar organisation of marine governance has been questioned. This paper examines this phenomenon in Europe as a result of implementation of the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) and examines changes in the role of the national state vis a vis other levels of jurisdiction in marine policy. The relevance of use pressures differs across European member states, as do national policy styles and institutional configurations. Therefore, a nuanced picture is needed regarding the ways European marine policy is being implemented. To this end, the paper employs a co-evolutionary perspective studying the cases of Germany, Spain and Portugal. European marine policy has become anchored in the most relevant policy fields except agriculture and fisheries, and competency regarding its environmental dimension has been strengthened, formalized and clarified as a result of the MSFD. Its implementation, tied to international marine protection, comes following initiatives to develop maritime economies. In Portugal, implementation of the MSFD did not change the scalar organisation of natural resource governance. In Spain and Germany, the MSFD led to disputes regarding clarification of competencies. In the course of implementing the MSFD in Germany, challenges are tied to the political dimensions of formalizing practices and producing integrated policies. In Spain and Portugal, comprehensive stock-taking is itself a challenging task. (c) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd." assertion.
39ab3f2f-fa04-4f67-adb5-300d79d86ce1 description "For many species of marine megafauna, strandings remain the most important source of biological samples. Because of their opportunistic nature however, strandings data have long been under- or misused in the assessment of population conservation status. Even if many national and international regulations promote the use of strandings in monitoring strategies, the interpretation of strandings remains controversial. The aim of this study is to provide a context for the interpretation of marine megafauna stranding data, in order to assess the achievement of specific objectives against Good Environmental Status criteria in the context of the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive or other regional agreements. The first step is to construct an a priori spatial distribution under a null hypothesis HO. The a priori spatial distribution of theoretical dead animals can either be set uniformly, consistent with current knowledge on abundance of marine vertebrates, or based on management objectives. The drift prediction of these theoretical carcasses would provide a time series of strandings expected under the null hypothesis. The reverse drift of observed strandings would highlight mortality areas of stranded animals. The correction of these areas by the probability of getting stranded according to drift conditions would provide an estimated distribution of dead animals inferred from strandings. The differences between expected and observed situations constitute anomalies and highlight cases where inferred distribution departs from the a priori spatial distribution. This work proposes several population indicators that can be used anywhere in the world and can be applied for all large marine vertebrates found stranded. The integration of these indicators in MSFD and various regional agreements could provide cost-effective and relevant information on protected species. In the context of impaired ecological situations, the complementary use of several population indicators could strengthen the diagnosis made regarding conservation status and hence conservation strategies. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
cdf06b21-c4eb-4408-a6ca-50667dc2b2e5 description "Being a large maritime nation, the need to develop sustainable ocean planning and management processes in Portugal has been gaining increased importance in the last decade. After promulgating its first national framework law on maritime spatial planning (MSP), Portugal has recently approved a new MSP Diploma that aims at "developing" (i.e. implementing in detail) the framework law. This paper analyzes and discusses the new Portuguese MSP Diploma by (1) briefly presenting its main specificities; (2) analyzing its contents (and comparing them to the EU MSP Directive contents), namely in what pertains to environmental references; (3) analyzing the link between the EU Marine Strategy Directive (MSFD) and the MSP implementation in Portugal; and (4) discussing the main challenges that the Diploma poses to the long-term sustainability of Portuguese ocean management. Results show that environmental references represent only a small account on the Diploma contents (c. 2% against c. 5% in the EU MSP Directive); main environmental topics addressed include environmental "monitoring" and "evaluation", "environmental protection", "sustainability", and "good (environmental) status"; and the ecosystem-based approach is never referred to. In Portugal the same government entity has responsibility over the implementation of both MSP and the MSFD, and such an institutional framework is expected to promote sustainable maritime uses as well as a true coordination/communication between both processes. The Diploma enshrines several "unusual" aspects that may compromise environmental sustainability. Although the new Portuguese MSP Diploma has been recently approved and promulgated, it may still be amended in the framework of a parliamentary discussion, therefore still having the opportunity to overcome the identified environmental challenges/concerns. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
6a9fad4e-0700-4660-8420-9fe56f6fea5a description "An indicator is presented to assess and monitor the good environmental status of national marine waters based on the status of commercially exploited marine fishes and invertebrates, including fully-assessed as well as data-limited stocks. The overall-indicator consists of one number per year. It summarizes the following sub-indicators: the stock size relative to the size that can produce the maximum sustainable fishing yield; the mortality caused by fishing relative to the natural rate of mortality; the mean length in the catch relative to the length where 90% of the females reach sexual maturity; and the abundance in national waters relative to mean abundance in the time series. For the example of German marine waters, the overall-indicator shows that only 3 of 19 stocks (Baltic Sea dab, North Sea plaice and North Sea sprat) were above the limit reference point for the overall indicator in 2011. North Sea herring was close to reaching the threshold, but most other stocks were still far below. Apparently fishing mortality was too high to allow recovery of more stocks to levels capable of producing the maximum sustainable yield. The chosen indicators and reference points may prove useful to other scientists tasked with assessing the environmental status of their national waters. (C) 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd." assertion.
e7c6071c-186d-4c72-8cbd-8f97d2c10337 description "The main objective of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD, 2008/56/EC) is to achieve or to establish and maintain the "good environmental status" (GES) until 2020. The Black Sea is one of the fourth marine regions assigned for implementing the MSFD through two countries and EU Member States: Romania and Bulgaria. Through the MSFD Guiding Improvements in the Black Sea Integrated Monitoring System (MISIS Project), for the Romanian waters were defined and delimited the types of the seawater. Using the short and long-term data analysis of the physical parameters (temperature and salinity from available data since 1955 - 2012), the main features of the western Black Sea water bodies was characterized. In addition, the corresponding salinity of water bodies in the western Black Sea were evaluated, using the grid points 0.5 degrees x 0.5 degrees, calculating for each quarter from the corresponding number of measured data: the mean, standard deviation and the coefficient of variation. Based on the physical parameters, the degree of anthropogenic impact, chlorophyll-a concentration, bathymetry etc., four categories of the Romanian Black Sea waters types were identified: RO-TT03 - the northern part, marine waters under the direct influence of the Danube, at depths of at least 30 m; RO-CT01 - the marine waters from the central to the southern area (Portita down to Vama Veche), from the baseline to 30 m isobath; RO-MT01 - that corresponds to the inner and the outer shelf marine area from the 30 m to the 100 m isobaths and RO-MT02 - the perimeter for the type of offshore seawater located at depths of at least 100 m." assertion.
2b7320b1-5d8e-460a-aaab-f1b1f6d2aad2 description "In recent years, extensive efforts have been committed to the temperature forecast work, and more and more studies have indicated that the temperature is rising. For the purpose of forecasting long-term temperature trend, a temperature forecast method named multiple sine functions decomposition (MSFD) method is presented in this paper. Based on the numerical experiments for 12 Asia-Pacific (APAC) cities, the efficacy of the MSFD method and the warming trend of APAC region are substantiated. The core concept of the MSFD method is that, by decomposing a historical temperature sequence into sine waveforms, multiple sine functions are thus obtained and applied to forecasting the future temperature trend. Different degrees of warming in the ensuing 200 years are forecasted from the results of numerical experiments. In addition, we find that the high-latitude cities are generally more evident in terms of temperature change compared with those low-latitude cities. In summary, with the most possibility, the general temperature trend of APAC region is upward." assertion.
226f5f2b-8334-4d74-8e77-c8a4ce9259f7 description "Marine environment protection in Europe faces a number of challenges. One is the coordination of relevant sectoral policies - such as agricultural and fisheries policies with regard to marine protection objectives. The question in the following is on how marine protection issues can be more closely integrated in sectoral policies under the conditions prevailing at present. In particular the strength and weaknesses of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) as the key instrument for marine environment protection in Europe are analyzed in this context. In particular, the MSFD does not adequately address all sectors and policies which are relevant to marine environment protection. One possible means of giving the MSFD greater influences on other policies of relevance to marine waters is to integrate the objectives established under the MSFD in the European maritime policy. The aim should be to require the further development of sectoral policies to take unrestricted account of the objectives of the MSFD implementation process. But also other instruments of marine policy such as maritime spatial planning and marine protected areas are crucial to advance the protection of European seas. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
5496b217-7f29-46ab-9b6f-d06574e5def7 description "The EU Water Framework Directive (Directive 2000/60/EC) is in its' final implementation stage. This year (2009) all EU member states must finalize and publish their first River Basin Management Plans, setting out clearly the steps required to achieve good ecological and chemical status and promote the sustainable use of water by 2015. These management plans apply to all surface freshwater bodies, groundwater, estuaries and coastal waters out to one nautical mile. In 2008 the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (Directive 2008/56/EC) became law. It provides national and local authorities with a legal base for the maintenance and recovery of coastal and marine waters with the aim of achieving good environmental status and to promote the sustainable use of the marine environment by 2021. The three main challenges of the MSFD are 1) the need to establish a common vision and a general approach for all regional seas, 2) the need to establish a specific regional approach to the management of the marine environment and 3) the need to address all pressures on the marine environment in a holistic and integrated approach. This article outlines the steps, taken in Slovenia in the preparation of its own RBMP's and summarizes the key findings and the main managerial issues encountered. In addition, a description of initial steps, taken during the implementation of the MSFD and art analysis of links and gaps between the implementation of the WFD and MFSD is presented." assertion.
0ab171a7-45c5-4194-82d4-850955504bca description "The use of biological effects tools offer enormous potential to meet the challenges outlined by the European Union Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) whereby Member States are required to develop a robust set of tools for defining 11 qualitative descriptors of Good Environmental Status (GES), such as demonstrating that "Concentrations of contaminants are at levels not giving rise to pollution effects" (GES Descriptor 8). This paper discusses the combined approach of monitoring chemical contaminant levels, along side biological effect measurements relating to the effect of pollutants, for undertaking assessments of GES across European marine regions. We outline the minimum standards that biological effects tools should meet if they are to be used for defining GES in relation to Descriptor 8 and describe the current international initiatives underway to develop assessment criteria for these biological effects techniques. Crown Copyright (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
a2050d35-a867-4649-bee9-427dcc18d3a2 description "Ecosystem-based management of the North Sea demersal fish community uses the large fish indicator (LFI), defined as the proportion by weight of fish caught in the International Bottom Trawl Survey (IBTS) exceeding a length of 40 cm. Current values of the LFI are similar to 0.15, but the European Union (EU) Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requires a value of 0.3 be reached by 2020. An LFI calculated from an eight-species subset correlated closely with the full community LFI, thereby permitting an exploration of the effects of various fishing scenarios on projected values of the LFI using an extension of a previously published multi-species length-structured model that included these key species. The model replicated historical changes in biomass and size composition of individual species, and generated an LFI that was significantly correlated with observations. A community-wide reduction in fishing mortality of 60% from 2008 values was necessary to meet the LFI target, driven mainly by changes in cod and saithe. A 70% reduction in cod fishing mortality alone, or a 75% reduction in otter trawl effort, was also sufficient to achieve the target, Reductions in fishing mortality necessary to achieve maximum sustainable harvesting rates are projected to result in the LFI over-shooting its target. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V." assertion.
afd22362-e209-46a2-b5ce-806e16272617 description "The ICES subdivisions in the North Sea (SD IIIa, SD IVa, and SD IVb) and the subdivisions in the Baltic Sea (SD 29, SD 27/28-2, and SD 25/26) are selected to compare the response in long term monitoring data (1970-2000) with respect to climate regime shifts. A modified AMOEBA model is applied to the data sets to identify the status and development of the North Sea and Baltic Sea system during two recent regime shifts. Biological regime shifts can be identified 1989/1990 in SD IIIa in the North Sea and in SD 25/26 in the Baltic Sea. A synchronous appearance of regime shifts could only be identified in the central and southern Baltic Sea for both regime shifts 1975/76 and 1989/90 where the AMOEBA model indicated a high similarity in ecosystem response. A clear difference was identified in the response of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. Inter-annual and inter-decadal variability as well as regime shifts are driven in the Baltic Sea by direct atmospheric forcing only. In contrast, the changes in the North Sea are influenced by both the direct atmospheric forcing and the indirect forcing from the changes in North Atlantic. The fact that regime shifts as well as their synchronous appearance can be identified with the AMOEBA model might be of major interest for the management of sustainable use of ecosystem goods and services, the development of ecosystem approach to management and the implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) of the European Union (EU). (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved." assertion.
c5a306a2-98e1-42f3-a917-7cf7bbd54b2c description "Proposed indicators for the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) food webs Descriptor focus on structural elements of food webs, and in particular on the abundance and productivity of top predators. However, the inferences that can be drawn from such indicators depend on whether or not the predators are "bottom-up limited" by the availability of their prey. Many seabird populations appear to be "bottom-up limited" so that variation in their reproductive success and/or abundance reflects changes in lower trophic levels. Here we find that gadoid fish predators off the Firth of Forth, southeast Scotland, do not appear to be "bottom-up limited" by the biomass of their main prey, 0-group sandeels; gadoid biomass and feeding performance was independent of sandeel biomass. Variability in food web indicators based on these gadoid predators seems to impart little insight into underlying processes occurring at lower trophic levels in the local food web. The implications of this in terms of how the currently proposed MSFD food web indicators should be used and interpreted are considered, and the ramifications in terms of setting targets representing good environmental status for both fish and seabird communities are discussed." assertion.
6269b93d-5298-4a74-9415-c19abb6434cd description "The summer school on 'The contribution of environmental indices in meeting the objectives and principles of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive' was organised in Constanta, Romania, during 3th and the 7th of June 2013, within the framework of Work Package 8 (WP8) of the PERSEUS Project (Policy-oriented marine Environmental Research for the Southern European Seas). The main focus was to create training opportunities which would strengthen the existing research and technological development network in the Mediterranean and Black seas in principles such as ecosystem modelling, monitoring and environmental assessment. The school targeted the need that both the EU and non-EU states should adopt a common framework and regional approach with regards to environmental policy development; common monitoring practices and the use of common assessment tools. The main objectives of the PERSEUS Summer School on the contribution of environmental indices in meeting the objectives and principles of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) were the: (i) to expose participants to aspects of the theoretical and practical background on the assessment of the benthic ecological status using the index M-AMBI (multivariate AMBI - AZTI Marine Biotic Index) and Marine Strategy Framework Directive assessment issues; (ii) to provide participants with the most important concepts related to the fishery related indices; (iii) to get participants acquainted with the main applications of ocean color based index/eutrophication-related core set indicators CSI023 (chlorophyll-a); (iv) to present theoretical and practical aspects of characterisation of the ecological state of marine and coastal waters using Trophic index (TRIX); (v) to establish links between different researchers involved in the field of environmental indicators related with the Marine Strategy Framework Directive. 20 students from various Black sea and Mediterranean countries and with different backgrounds completed the school successfully, blending a thorough lecture programme with social interaction and exchange of ideas." assertion.
b927e3d8-5bfd-4332-b14c-ab3a07d36dc6 description "In the Mediterranean region Cymodocea nodose is widely distributed throughout shallow sites. Therefore, a correct assessment of the status of its meadows is of great importance for the implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD), the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), and the Habitat Directive (HD), especially for areas where Posidonia oceanica meadows (the most frequently used indicator in the Mediterranean Sea) are rare or not present. The previously proposed index for the evaluation of the status of C. nodosa meadows (CymoSkew) is based on In-transformed relative frequencies of photosynthetic leaf lengths, which we believe is statistically questionable. Therefore, we further improved the methodology and developed a new index named MediSkew, where In-transformation is applied to raw data of leaf lengths. More specifically, the index is a combination of two metrics, both based on C nodosa leaf length: deviation from the reference median length (Medi-) and skewness of the length frequency distribution (-Skew), though greater importance was assigned to the first. To develop the classification criteria for the assessment of the status, also a Pressure Index for Seagrass Meadows (PISM), for the evaluation of pressure impact relationships, was developed. The MediSkew is meant to be a rapid screening method for wide areas, therefore the index should be tested for the assessment of the status of C nodosa meadows throughout Mediterranean coastal waters. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
fcc675e4-f2cf-440b-a3b9-ea786eedf38d description "This article considers the approach taken by the ICES to integrated ecosystem assessments (IEAs) in the context of the wider evolution of IEAs and the science/policy landscape within the ICES region. It looks forward and considers the challenges facing the development of IEAs, specifically those of scoping for objectives, participatory engagement, developing indicators and targets, risk analysis, and creating tools to evaluate management measures for marine anthropogenic activities. It concludes that expectations that the implementation of IEAs will take an ordered, stepwise approach will lead to disappointment and frustration. This is a consequence of the need to operate in an adaptive manner in a complex system. The ecosystem, the science support infrastructure, and the governance systems are all complex. Plus when engaged in a debate about societal objectives, we expect to encounter a complex and changing landscape. As a community, the challenge is to find leverage mechanisms to encourage IEA efforts to provide insights and tools within resources. We will need to innovate and be responsive to the complexity of the ecosystem and governance structures encountered when performing IEA." assertion.
dc6ca58a-5bfd-4e8e-a28f-c4ecb5b12da3 description "The EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requires assessment of environmental status in relation to changing human pressures. In this study taxonomic composition of beach wrack is proposed as an indicator for the assessment of coastal sea benthic macrovegetation biodiversity within the context of the MSFD. Based on the relationships between eutrophication metrics and taxonomic structure of benthic vegetation, the Beach Wrack Macrovegetation Index (BMI) was developed and tested as a case study of the northern Gulf of Riga (Baltic Sea). The index showed a higher benthic biodiversity in areas with higher water transparency, lower nutrient concentrations, and lower Baltic Sea Pressure Index values. Compared to commonly used metrics, the BMI is an easy-to-use and cost-effective method, which can be further incorporated within a citizen science project. The method can be recommended for the areas that are not affected by strong tides or persistent currents. Boreal summer is the preferred season for sampling because then the impact of hydrodynamic effects on the structure of stormcast is the lowest." assertion.
aa778133-efa0-4906-ac7d-12eca4c0d71a description "Stakeholder participation is vital when introducing and implementing ecosystem-based management (EBM) at any scale. This paper presents the results of a survey covering four European Regional Seas (Baltic Sea, Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and North-East Atlantic Ocean) aimed to collect stakeholders' perspectives on their Regional Sea governance to implement the European Union (EU) Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). In this survey, drivers of good governance including stakeholder involvement, willingness and capacity to cooperate, efficiency, institutional ambiguity and decision-making were explored. The results indicate a clear gap in perception between the current, the ideal and the foreseen situation regarding the implementation of the MSFD. The preferences for the future governance structures vary between stakeholders and across seas although some similarities can be found. Based on the results of the survey, this paper concludes that tailor-made rather than off-the-shelf solutions will be needed to accommodate regional cooperation in the European marine environment for implementing ecosystem-based management under the MSFD. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
baa18b24-da64-4e11-9953-eb99f2a83f67 description "This study calculates a suite of indicators reflecting the spatial extent of fishing and its impact on the seafloor and discusses the usefulness of these indicators to inform future management and the issues to consider. It explores several methods to calculate the indicators and shows that they can be informative to report on both fishing pressure and the status of the seafloor. However, although observed overall trends were robust against the specific method of calculation, the absolute values vary greatly with the calculation method. As both aspects are important from a policy perspective, agreement on the methodology to calculate the indicators is required. This study based on the Dutch Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) shows that it is possible to calculate indicators required to inform decision-makers on the pressure of fishing as well as the status of the seafloor pending a decision on the following issues: (i) choice of an appropriate grid cell resolution, (ii) use of interpolated VMS tracks instead of VMS position registrations, (iii) choice of an "intensity threshold" dependent on the benthic community recovery capacity, and (iv) the level of confidence required when assessing if an area is not impacted." assertion.
b11eaddc-2020-4972-8266-b281ecb07ec7 description "The Department of Defense (DoD) has mandated development of a system to collect and manage data on the weight, percent body fat (�), and fitness of all military personnel. This project aimed to (1) develop a computerized weight and fitness database to track individuals and Army units over time allowing cross-sectional and longitudinal evaluations and (2) test the computerized system for feasibility and integrity of data collection over several years of usage. The computer application, the Military Services Fitness Database (MSFD), was designed for (1) storage and tracking of data related to height, weight, � for the Army Weight Control Program (AWCP) and Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) scores and (2) generation of reports using these data. A 2.5-year pilot test of the MSFD indicated that it monitors population and individual trends of changing body weight, �, and fitness in a military population." assertion.
b4781fe4-a661-4413-aa8a-7efbb05eadf7 description "The growing scientific and societal concerns about the effects of underwater sound on marine ecosystems have been recently recognised through the introduction of several international initiatives, like the International Quiet Ocean Experiment, aimed at measuring the environmental impact of ocean noise on large spatial and temporal scales. From a regulatory perspective, the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive includes noise (and other forms of energy) as one of eleven descriptors of good environmental status of Europe's seas. The directive requires member states to monitor trends in annually averaged sound. The Laboratory of Applied Bioacoustics has developed a software package that measures sound levels and monitors acoustic sources in real-time; this software was used for the LIDO project (www.listentothedeep.com), which originated from the European Seafloor Observatory Network of Excellence (ESONET-NoE; www.esonet-noe.org). The system is currently operating worldwide from several wired and radio-linked observatories. The CTBTO (Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization) has made available years of data from hydroacoustic stations to look for ambient sound trends and to detect cetacean presence. Here, we present the analysis of four CTBTO platforms (located in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans), covering 42 months of data, intended to detect annual and monthly changes or trends in the ambient sound levels. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved." assertion.
98fac821-d9d0-4e8d-9561-3f517cc9811e description "Commonly, the Baltic Sea is pictured as a proactive region with a long-standing tradition for cooperation and surrounded by the "greenest" EU countries. In contrast, southern countries often suffer from the "Mediterranean Syndrome" in which the heterogenous socio political situation is given as the "proof" that cooperation would not work. The Marine Strategy Framework Directive adopted by European Union in 2008 is an important step towards ecosystem-based marine management and provides a legal document suggesting marine regions as a scale for cooperation. In this paper, we aim to explore stakeholders' perspectives on key factors for good governance at the regional sea level covering the Eastern Baltic States and the south of France. We targeted a broad panel of professionals from different sectors with a political, economic or societal importance in the respective seas. We suggest that Baltic and Mediterranean stakeholders are going through very different stages of governance adjustment fitting the purpose of ecosystem-based marine management. Baltic institutions are well established, which in some way prevents structural analysis of whether the current governance model is the most appropriate reaching GES. In the Mediterranean, the EU strategies faces institutional challenges, which is leading stakeholders to think "out of the box" about what is really needed for implementing ecosystem-based marine management for this sea. It is suggested that a golden opportunity exists at present in the Mediterranean to create a regional platform of cooperation, not only to fit the MSFD implementation, but also to improve governance of the Mediterranean Sea and its environmental status. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
793df6a0-a3ee-4919-b128-b13f77f4a940 description "Implementing the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive explicitly calls for regional cooperation between the EU Member States in the different regional seas. This regional cooperation, although set in a general framework of EU Member States and non-EU states utilising existing Regional Sea Conventions as focal point, develops along different tracks. Based on a series of interviews with different stakeholder groups in the different regional seas the drivers for this regional cooperation were determined. These drivers were used to develop a set of scenarios to depict possible ways and structures for cooperation at the different regional seas. In this paper the result of this analysis and the different scenarios developed are presented. The five scenarios developed were very helpful in elaborating alternative governance models for regional cooperation. From the validation by the stakeholders it became clear that both the drivers used, as the scenarios developed were found to be relevant. There is no single solution that is going to fit all regional seas, or that is going to appeal to all stakeholders within a regional sea. Especially in this setting the scenario approach does help people to explore the full range of possibilities that exists for the development of alternative governance models that address two issues raised but not detailed in the MSFD: cooperation and participation. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
fb4bd6dc-f15f-4e2b-9fa0-5d5ac0f4697c description "The assessment of ecological status of marine fish communities required by the marine strategy framework directive (MSFD) emphasises the need for fish-based ecological indices in marine waters. In this study we adapt five estuarine multimetric indices to the marine environment and apply them in three types of substrates, analysing the metrics responsible for the obtained patterns of ecological status. The results show inefficiency of the community degradation index (CDI) and the biological health index (BHI) in ecological status assessment and disagreement between the estuarine biotic integrity index (EBI), the estuarine fish community index (EFCI) and the transitional fish classification index (TFCI). Analysis of individual metrics suggests lack of representativeness and consideration for the particularities of each substrate's typical fish communities. None of the tested indices were efficient on the marine environment, urging the need for new marine indices that account for differences between types of substrate and depth. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
30fcca98-02ed-4bc1-bd00-0d2e9d4ce953 description "The article examines the experiences of two initiatives of cod avoidance by area regulations in the Kattegat in the light of the upcoming discard ban in EU fisheries. The first section highlights elements of the discard ban in the reformed EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). The second section presents two initiatives for cod avoidance in Kattegat; a fisher initiative sharing information about cod bycatch which could lead to real time closures in areas with high bycatch of juveniles, for vessels with low cod quota to avoid catch of all cod, and a Danish Swedish Government initiative of permanent and temporary area closures in Kattegat. The third section discusses the lessons learned in the light of implementation of the discard ban. The fourth section sums up the lessons learned; Regional measures of implementation of the discard ban should include all vessels with quota in the region to be regarded fair and the goals should be clear, not least when the descriptors of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, which might be more intangible for the fishers, are part of the goal of the measures. If incentives created by the regulation are stable over at least a few years the fishers and fishers' organisations are more capable at being active partners in developing the systems that support the discard ban. An example from the examined initiatives are the outline of a fleet information system, providing the skipper with information about hotspots of unwanted species allowing him to make a better plan for the selective fishery based on more qualified information. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
94c11416-7841-42b9-8cd6-e77a4d0bb75d description "Marine Biological Valuation (BV) has increased in importance in recent years, due to the need to establish accurate maps of biodiversity value. However, there have been few exercises undertaken in Southern Europe, in putting a value on marine biodiversity whilst at the same time looking at several biological components. This paper presents the complete Biological Valuation Map (BVM) of the Basque continental shelf and estuaries, using the methodology developed for the Belgian Continental Shelf. It includes all available biological data (zooplankton, macroalgae, macrobenthos, demersal fish, seabirds and cetaceans), from 2003 to 2010. BVMs aim to compile all available biological and ecological information for a selected study area, allocating an integrated intrinsic biological value to the subzones within the study area. Here, the results highlight specific areas (such as Jaizkibel or Cap Breton Canyon), as having high or very high integrated BV, using all of the components. Furthermore, some biodiversity 'hotspots' have been identified, according to a specific ecosystem component (e.g. mid-parts of the Oka estuary, for macroalgae, and the Cap Breton Canyon, for cetaceans). Comparison with the results obtained from other European countries, and with previously high-importance delimited zones within the study area, showed similar spatial trends and patterns. Therefore, the objectives of this contribution are: (i) to analyse and establish a spatial ecological value map of the continental shelf of the Basque Country (southern Bay of Biscay), using present BV methods; (ii) to compare the results obtained to other European countries, and (iii) to explore the application of these results to the Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) and the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requirements. This map can serve as a baseline for future MSP and can also be used for the determination of the environmental status, within the MSFD, for the qualitative descriptor 1 (biodiversity). (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
4efb1438-d0fa-49ab-9894-6bce899b27fd description "Policymakers and managers have a very different philosophy and approach to achieving healthy coastal and marine ecosystems than scientists. In this paper we discuss the evolution of the assessment of the chemical status in the aquatic environment and the growing rift between the political intention (precautionary principle) and scientific developments (adaptive and evidence-based management) in the context of the pitfalls and practicalities confronting the current Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). The conclusion is that policymakers and water managers should move with the times and take on board new techniques that scientists are using to assess chemical status and apply new scientific developments in assessment studies of the chemical status. These new techniques, such as bioassays, are cheaper than the classic approach of checking whether concentrations of certain individual priority compounds comply with permissible thresholds. Additionally, they give more insight into the real impacts of chemical compounds. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
a7218e48-4ef8-4354-82fe-6018b59d6fb9 description a7218e48-4ef8-4354-82fe-6018b59d6fb9 assertion.
a7218e48-4ef8-4354-82fe-6018b59d6fb9 description "This study reports the state and causes of eutrophication in the Portuguese continental Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), during a 14-year period (1995-2008), following the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) and using the trophic index TRIX for an integrated evaluation of indicators of eutrophication, and identifies areas where monitoring is needed to improve the eutrophication assessment. A non-continuous dataset for the 8 indicators specified by the MSFD for eutrophication assessment was used, including published and grey data. Eutrophication indicators were validated and thresholds reviewed, considering regional differences. The diatom:flagellate ratio was found a poor indicator of eutrophication as shifts in the diatom:flagellate ratio naturally occur associated with alternating water column turbulence and upwelling, and stratification, and therefore, could not be associated with anthropogenic nutrient enrichment effects. Assessment areas were, as a whole, classified as non-problem areas concerning eutrophication. Although nutrient enrichment was observed in coastal waters, related to river plume influence, nutrient enrichment direct and indirect effects were generally not detectable, possibly due to water column dispersion and mixing processes. Only occasionally, mild eutrophication was found in specific areas under the influence of major river (Douro, Vouga and Guadiana) plumes, associated with high nutrient and phytoplankton biomass levels and seagrass decline, which indicates the need for directed monitoring on eutrophication in those areas. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
f3d1f431-b74e-479d-ad0a-c055fed41ecb description "Environmental policies employ metaphoric objectives such as ecosystem health, resilience and sustainable provision of ecosystem services, which influence corresponding sustainability assessments by means of normative settings such as assumptions on system description, indicator selection, aggregation of information and target setting. A heuristic approach is developed for sustainability assessments to avoid ambiguity and applications to the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) and OSPAR assessments are presented. For MSFD, nineteen different assessment procedures have been proposed, but at present no agreed assessment procedure is available. The heuristic assessment framework is a functional-holistic approach comprising an ex-ante/ex-post assessment framework with specifically defined normative and systemic dimensions (EAEPNS). The outer normative dimension defines the ex-ante/ex-post framework, of which the latter branch delivers one measure of ecosystem health based on indicators and the former allows to account for the multi-dimensional nature of sustainability (social, economic, ecological) in terms of modeling approaches. For MSFD, the ex-ante/ex-post framework replaces the current distinction between assessments based on pressure and state descriptors. The exante and the ex-post branch each comprise an inner normative and a systemic dimension. The inner normative dimension in the ex-post branch considers additive utility models and likelihood functions to standardize variables normalized with Bayesian modeling. Likelihood functions allow precautionary target setting. The ex-post systemic dimension considers a posteriori indicator selection by means of analysis of indicator space to avoid redundant indicator information as opposed to a priori indicator selection in deconstructive-structural approaches. Indicator information is expressed in terms of ecosystem variability by means of multivariate analysis procedures. The application to the OSPAR assessment for the southern North Sea showed, that with the selected 36 indicators 48% of ecosystem variability could be explained. Tools for the ex-ante branch are risk and ecosystem models with the capability to analyze trade-offs, generating model output for each of the pressure chains to allow for a phasing-out of human pressures. The Bayesian measure of ecosystem health is sensitive to trends in environmental features, but robust to ecosystem variability in line with state space models. The combination of the ex-ante and ex-post branch is essential to evaluate ecosystem resilience and to adopt adaptive management. Based on requirements of the heuristic approach, three possible developments of this concept can be envisioned, i.e. a governance driven approach built upon participatory processes, a science driven functional-holistic approach requiring extensive monitoring to analyze complete ecosystem variability, and an approach with emphasis on ex-ante modeling and ex-post assessment of well-studied subsystems." assertion.

first
previous
next