Nanopublications LDF server

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

• 239c6738-20ef-4052-a83e-deb7e9273b19 description "A tested methodology is presented to assess the environmental status Sensu on the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) based on the data obtained from the monitoring of water quality in the Hellenic coastal waters within the Water Framework Directive (WFD). A decision tree developed by Borja et al. (2004) for integrating WFD results was applied after some adaptations. Modifications were included to evaluate the physicochemical status based on the eutrophication index developed for the Eastern Mediterranean waters. Results regarding the hydromorphological, physicochemical and biological elements are presented. The chemical status was assessed based on the concentrations of the heavy metals in water. Evaluation of the biological quality was based on the use of metrics developed for the phytoplankton biomass, benthic macroinvertebrates and macroalgae updated to accommodate the MSFD needs. Results from the integrative status of the water bodies were validated by correlating the classification results with a pressure index and environmental indicators in the water column and sediment. Following this decision tree the majority of stations expected to be at risk for achieving the 'good' status were found in the 'moderate' status. The benthos was found to be the element showing the closest agreement with the integrated final status having an increased weightage in the decision tree. The benthos quality and, in some limited cases, the eutrophication index largely determined the final status. The highest disagreement with the integrative classification was revealed by the macroalgae. All the indicators used correlated with the water and sediment parameters, although the benthos correlated better with the sediment factors while the phytoplankton and eutrophication index correlated with the water column parameters." assertion.
• c605b69b-93d8-4c8e-a833-d72c714dbef4 description "A review of the present state and future perspectives of the fishery in the Bulgarian marine part of the Black sea basin is presented. Following the approach suggested by the European Union (2008/56/EC) Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), particular species may be good indicators of specific environmental factors in their local environment. It is advisable to set the indicators for monitoring the healthy state of a marine fisheries ecosystem, concerning both pelagic and benthos organisms before making a suggestions and assessments about any given stock. Formal decision rules using these indicators for maintenance of the fishery ecosystem in a productive condition, and for stock recovery, need to be urgently implemented. In the present paper the example with sprat stock in the Black sea was emphasised. It was found that one of the main objectives for effective and sustainable management of the fish stocks is to make regular annual assessment of the parental stock biomass, length and weight growth, age determination, mortality estimation and reproductive potential estimation. Levels of fishing that break normal productivity of the given stock and to far-reaching effects caused by other environmental variations and anthropogenic activities." assertion.
• be5489f6-baba-4845-8150-15a8fda29ba9 description "In this paper the Marine Fish Community Index (MFCI) for the assessment of ecological status of marine environment is proposed. The MFCI was divided into 4 typologies: Rocky subtidal; shallow, intermediate and deep soft-bottoms. Based on the typical community associated to each typology and the DPSIR analysis performed, a set of metrics were selected and tested through a multiple correlation matrix (Pearson's coefficient) and the core ones included in the index. The MFCI was applied in all typologies and the scores obtained with each metric were analyzed. In order to test the robustness of the MFCI the final ecological value of each zone was recalculated by removing Successively one metric at a tinge. The MFCI showed a sensitive and robust response in the ecological status assessment. Since it incorporates both functional and structural Community information, the MFCI can be useful in the context of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive as well as in other contexts of conservation and sustainable management of the marine environment. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
• 467ee028-d4bb-4dfc-a48e-54939ed7e073 description "The large fish indicator (LFI) was developed to support the North Sea fish community Ecological Quality Objective (EcoQO) pilot study, intended to establish an operational ecosystem approach to management. Subsequently, procedures established in the North Sea were applied to the Celtic Sea to derive an LFI and target specific to this region. The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requires EU Member States sharing marine regions to cooperate using the Regional Seas Conventions, and using indicators already adopted by them. The MSFD explicitly suggests the LFI as a foodweb indicator, but it could equally well be used to monitor biodiversity. Here, we apply the established rationale to develop an LFI and target specific to the southern Bay of Biscay. Despite declining in the 1990s, the LFI subsequently recovered to near original values in 2008. Previously, relationships between the LFI and fishing pressure have involved lengthy time-lags. We observe a similar relationship, but with shorter lag. The nature of the larger species responsible for much of the change in the LFI may explain this difference, and might also suggest that, in the Bay of Biscay, the LFI is more appropriately used as a biodiversity indicator, rather than a foodweb indicator." assertion.
• 91966650-0f28-43f5-9b55-0335ee2c07fa description "Trends in abundance, temporal occurrence and spatial distribution of marine and brackish nonindigenous species (NIS) are part of the indicators to assess the compliance of Good Environmental Status in the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (EU-MSFD). European-wide regional and national databases for NIS will be useful for the implementation of the EU-MSFD but there are still spatial gaps for some regions and taxonomic groups. In 2009, Portugal was among the countries with the lowest reported numbers of NIS in Europe and a national online database on NIS was not available. This study provides an updated list of NIS registered in Portuguese coastal and estuarine waters, including mainland Portugal and the Azores and Madeira archipelagos. A list of 133 NIS was cataloged, most of which recorded in the last three decades, showing that this area of the North Atlantic is no less prone to introductions than neighboring areas. Most NIS reported in the current inventory are native in the Indo-Pacific region. Fouling and ballast water are the most likely introduction vectors of NIS in the studied area but shipping routes connecting to the NIS native regions are rare, indicating that most species are secondary introductions. The high number of NIS in the Azores and Madeira islands indicates that this ecosystem type seems to be more susceptible to invasions but these preliminary results might be biased by a higher number of studies and knowledge on the NIS occurrence on the islands. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
• 000cf604-e9de-4b23-ad11-73d4d546e238 description "The exclusive economic zones (EEZ) of coastal countries are coming under increasing pressure from various economic sectors such as fishing, aquaculture, shipping and energy production. In Europe, there is a policy to expand the maritime economic sector without damaging the environment by ensuring that these activities comply with legally binding Directives, such as the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). However, monitoring an extensive maritime area is a logistical and economic challenge. Remote sensing is considered one of the most cost effective, methods for providing the spatial and temporal environmental data that will be necessary for the effective implementation of the MSFD. However, there is still a concern about the uncertainties associated with remote sensed products. This study has tested how a specific satellite product can contribute to the monitoring of a MSFD Descriptor for "good environmental status" (GES). The results show that the quality of the remote sensing product Algal Pigment Index 1 (API 1) from the MEdium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) sensor of the European Space Agency for ocean colour products can be effectively validated with in situ data from three stations off the SW Iberian Peninsula. The validation results show good agreement between the MERIS API 1 and the in situ data for the two more offshore stations, with a higher coefficient of determination (R-2) of 0.79, and with lower uncertainties for the average relative percentage difference (RPD) of 24.6% and 27.9% and a root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.40 and 0.38 for Stations B and C, respectively. Near to the coast, Station A has the lowest R-2 of 0.63 and the highest uncertainties with an RPD of 112.9% and a RMSE of 1.00. It is also the station most affected by adjacency effects from the land: when the Improved Contrast between Ocean and Land processor (ICOL) is applied the R-2 increases to 0.77 and there is a 30% reduction in the uncertainties estimated by RPD. The MERIS API 1 product decreases from inshore to offshore, with higher values occurring mainly between early spring and the end of the summer, and with lower values during winter. By using the satellite images for API 1, it is possible to detect and track the development of algal blooms in coastal and marine waters, demonstrating the usefulness of remote sensing for supporting the implementation of the MSFD with respect to Descriptor 5: Eutrophication. It is probable that remote sensing will also prove to be useful for monitoring other Descriptors of the MSFD. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license." assertion.
• 33ab0ad8-539d-48ee-b4fa-332239b4b26b description "Assessing the size structure and composition of fish stocks, as demanded by the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), is considered to be critical for the evaluation of the health status of exploited populations. The MSFD explicitly contains the concept that many large individuals within a population are indicative of a healthy stock. To reflect the abundance of large individuals, the EU-Commission suggested several size-based indicators (SBI). Only few of these SBI have been tested within a pressure-state relationship, in which a state indicator is sensitive, responsive and specific to a given pressure. Sensitivity and responsiveness of pressure-state relationship can be validated by cross-correlating time-series of pressure and state indicators. In the real world, however, time-series of ecological indicators are not only affected by the influence of a pressure, but by natural variability, changes in the sampling method and stochasticity. Hence observed cross-correlations between pressure and state indicator time-series may not be based on a true causal link, especially if time-series are short (less than 30 years). To overcome these limitations, the performance of eight SBI was tested with a population model in which pressures (fishing mortality) and states of ecosystem components (SBI) were precisely known. We distinguished between relative SBI reflecting proportions of size-classes and absolute SBI reflecting absolute entities of the size-distribution such as the observed maximum size in a given survey year. Relative SBI were more sensitive to recruitment than absolute SBI. but not to fishing pressure, which makes relative SBI unsuitable for the assessment of the abundance of large individuals within a population. The outcomes of the model simulation were confirmed by a case study on North Sea cod, where the mean length of the largest ten individuals caught in a given survey year (L-max10) emerged as a promising indicator for the assessment of size structure. Exemplary, we demonstrate how the L-max10 may be incorporated into the existing International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) assessment framework by defining target and limit values of the good environmental status. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
• 1270762d-6b8b-4707-957f-c34be0e597c5 description "The EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive requires Member States to estimate the level of human impacts on their marine waters. We report the first attempt to quantify the magnitude and distribution of cumulative impacts of anthropogenic pressures for an entire regional sea, the Baltic Sea. We used a method which takes account of the sensitivity of different ecosystem components and gives scores for potential impacts in 5 km x 5 km areas. Our quantification of impacts was based on data layers of anthropogenic pressures and ecosystem components. The classification of the anthropogenic pressures follows the MSFD and the outcome of the index was targeted to facilitate the implementation of the directive. The study presents the cumulative impacts over the entire sea area and shows that the highest estimated impacts were in the southern and south-western sea areas and in the Gulf of Finland. The lowest index values were found in the Gulf of Bothnia. The results coincide with the population densities of the adjacent catchment areas. Fishing, inputs of nutrients and organic matter and inputs of hazardous substances comprised 25%, 30% and 30%, respectively, of the total cumulative impact. The approach used is transparent and the results are useful in regard to ecosystem-based management, e.g. for area-based management and assessments. Examples of uses are given together with analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the approach. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
• 244040cc-11f0-42b7-9b17-82b5b79087a0 description "This study analyses whether science-policy interactions linked to the management of hazardous chemicals in the European marine environment have developed in accordance with general theories on public involvement in policymaking in general and post-normal science (PNS) in particular. Special attention is given to a comparison between key EU policy frameworks, namely the "polluter-oriented" registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemicals (REACH) and the "environment-oriented" Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), based on in-depth analysis of key policy-related documents and interviews with scientists and policy actors. The results outline that in spite of a substantial amount of rhetoric in EU sources about recommending wide and ambitious public involvement, current participation and deliberation practices are rather undeveloped in the studied EU policy frameworks. Furthermore, it can be concluded that the introduction of more radical approaches to knowledge co-production and participation (like PNS) would require epistemological, institutional and constitutional changes that are not feasible in the foreseeable future, at least not in respect to chemicals management. This study generates empirical data with regard to the management of chemicals in the European marine environment, specifically data on participation, the role of science, and uncertainty treatment at the science-policy interface. These data provide empirical information that can be used by environmental managers involved in the development of EU marine policy. At the same time, the results can be used theoretically to reflect on and problematise the current state of wider public participation in EU environmental policies and PNS development in particular cases. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
• 79033fc7-c454-4c2a-879c-1edf5be467e5 description "The Belgian MPA designation process started in 1999, a journey that was characterized by several conflicts related to the multi-level government system in Belgium and obstacles, e.g. the de-designation of the Special Area of Conservation (SAC) 'Vlakte van de Raan' in 2008. On the other hand a number of successful events could be noted as well, e.g. the designation of three Special Protection Areas (SPAs) in 2005 in front of the three marine harbors, and the extension of the SAC 'Trapegeer-Stroombank' (designated in 2005) to an area > 30% of the BPNS surface in 2012 (now renamed to SAC 'Vlaamse Banken'). The most important aspects that contributed to the successful designation of these MPAs in the BPNS were (1) the appointment of a minister of the North Sea in 2003 (and 2011), who was dedicated and specifically mandated to coordinate all federal North Sea matters (thus excluding fisheries); (2) the growing awareness of the need for nature conservation through different EU Directives (e.g. Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD)); and (3) the level of stakeholder and public involvement, especially focusing on transparency throughout the process. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
• 120c7421-9d6c-464d-94b6-eb45afe6e060 description "Biotic indices, which reflect the quality of the environment, are widely used in the marine realm. Sometimes, key species or ecosystem engineers are selected for this purpose. This is the case of the Mediterranean seagrass Posidonia oceanica, widely used as a biological quality element in the context of the European Union Water Framework Directive (WFD). The good quality of a water body and the apparent health of a species, whether or not an ecosystem engineer such as P. oceanica, is not always indicative of the good structure and functioning of the whole ecosystem. A key point of the recent Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) is the ecosystem-based approach. Here, on the basis of a simplified conceptual model of the P. oceanica ecosystem, we have proposed an ecosystem-based index of the quality of its functioning, compliant with the MSFD requirements. This index (EBQI) is based upon a set of representative functional compartments, the weighting of these compartments and the assessment of the quality of each compartment by comparison of a supposed baseline. The index well discriminated 17 sites in the north-western Mediterranean (French Riviera, Provence, Corsica, Catalonia and Balearic Islands) covering a wide range of human pressure levels. The strong points of the EBQI are that it is easy to implement, non-destructive, relatively robust, according to the selection of the compartments and to their weighting, and associated with confidence indices that indicate possible weakness and biases and therefore the need for further field data acquisition." assertion.
• 382381cd-4039-40aa-8277-992ae3633d8c description "The importance of an ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management (EAFM) has been highlighted by the Directorate General MARE, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), the International Water Center (IWC) and the North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission (NAMMCO), among others. FAO has recently provided guidelines on EAFM, and stakeholders show increased interest in sustainable management, most obviously through the requests for certification of sustainable fishing. These requests arise due to pressure from consumers, advocacy groups, general societal awareness of limited resources and environmental concerns. It will develop assessment methods and a decision-support framework (DSF) for management of marine resources and thereby enhance the capacity to provide integrated assessment, advice and decision support for an EAFM. Enabling comparisons between relevant 'what-if' scenarios and their likely consequences, the DSF will support the implementation of the new common fisheries policy (CFP) and the marine strategy framework directive (MSFD). Learning from the experience of previous and on-going research, MareFrame integrates stakeholders at its core using a co-creation approach that combines analytical and participatory processes to provide knowledge that can be applied to policy-making, improving management plans and implementation of an EAFM. MareFrame liaises with other national and international research projects and focused on the management of marine living resources in Europe in a changing environment, taking a holistic view incorporating socio-economic and legislative issues." assertion.
• 264ae351-cec0-458d-99c2-982c41130d51 description "Managing uncertainty is a main challenge for sustainable management of complex socioecological systems, such as marine ecosystems. Today, a growing number of scientific publications address decision-making practices under conditions of high uncertainty. However, very few studies have analyzed how science treats uncertainty before it reaches decision-makers, especially for various marine environmental issues. This study aims to fill these research gaps by identifying the main theoretical approaches to science-based uncertainty management proposed in the scientific literature. Furthermore, by scrutinizing advisory documents, current approaches and methods to assess and treat uncertainty in science-based advice are analyzed and compared for five significant environmental issues in the Baltic Sea (eutrophication, fisheries, invasive species, chemical pollution, and oil spills). Specifically, the study analyzes the types of uncertainties acknowledged, how strategies and practices present and address uncertainties, and whether new theoretical proposals identified in the scientific literature affect existing practices. The study's results reveal that current scientific practices do not adequately address uncertainty in advice formulation. First, no common guideline is in use, resulting in significant differences among studied environmental issues and a common lack of structure, clarity, established terminology, and transparency in the assessment and treatment of uncertainty. Furthermore, new theoretical developments connected with uncertainty appraisal (such as theoretical typologies) and new tools and methods for handling uncertainty (such as precautionary and participatory approaches) are hardly utilized in practice in the management of the Baltic ecosystem. Consequently, although theoretical approaches for coping with uncertainty in complex socio-ecological systems are ample, the challenge for the future is to implement these approaches more effectively in assessment and management frameworks. The study discusses possible improvements to current practices in environmental management of large-scale socio-ecological systems such as the Baltic Sea and other regional seas, acknowledging that these measures will not reduce all existing uncertainty but rather contribute to a more comprehensive treatment of uncertainties. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
• fcdd5472-cf72-441d-b520-983beba60d23 description "Understanding and quantifying the trade-off between the requirement for clean safe bathing water and beaches and their wider ecosystem services is central to the aims of the European Union (EU) Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), and vital for the sustainability and economic viability of designated bathing waters. Uncertainty surrounding the impacts of ensuing bathing water policy transitions, e.g. the EU revised Bathing Waters Directive (rBWD), puts new urgency on our need to understand the importance of natural beach assets for human recreation, wildlife habitat and for protection from flooding and erosion. However, managing coastal zones solely in terms of public health could have potentially negative consequences on a range of other social and cultural ecosystem services, e.g. recreation. Improving our knowledge of how bathing waters, surrounding beach environments and local economies might respond to shifts in management decisions is critical in order to inform reliable decision-making, and to evaluate future implications for human health. In this paper we explore the conflicts and trade-offs that emerge at public beach environments, and propose the development of an evaluative framework of viable alternatives in environmental management whereby bathing waters are managed for their greatest utility, driven by identifying the optimal ecosystem service provision at any particular site. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
• 6335d0dc-de69-4575-81d9-ea167b0582b7 description "In the western Mediterranean Sea, the RADMED monitoring programme is already conducting several of the evaluations required under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MFSD) along the Spanish Mediterranean coast. The different aspects of the ecosystem that are regularly sampled under this monitoring programme are the physical environment and the chemical and biological variables of the water column, together with the planktonic communities, biomass and structure. Moreover, determinations of some anthropogenic stressors on the marine environment, such as contaminants and microplastics, are under development. Data are managed and stored at the Instituto Espanol de Oceanografia (IEO) Data Centre that works under the SeaDataNet infrastructure, and are also stored in the IBAMar database. In combination with remote sensing data, they are used to address open questions on the ecosystems in the western Mediterranean Sea." assertion.
• 1d1eaa4f-ebf9-43e0-9d55-7e28d2d05fea description "The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) is an important milestone for the preservation of the European marine environment. However, Member States can find its monitoring requirements challenging, particularly where it regards the definition and implementation of joint monitoring programmes between neighbouring countries. The challenges are even greater in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, where many countries are not members of the European Union and where Regional Sea Conventions face greater difficulties in coordinating monitoring activities. This paper presents the results from two regional workshops, within the framework of IRIS-SES project, which aimed to inform policy-and decision -makers in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea on what key stakeholders, including scientists, academia and local authorities, consider the main gaps, needs and opportunities for the MSFD joint monitoring regarding eutrophication and contaminants. It shows that a bottom-up approach, guided by structured workshops, can be a successful means of enhancing cooperation. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
• 0326921d-986b-4603-8c70-0c6fafbe5119 description "The permanent presence of microplastics in the marine environment is considered a global threat to several marine animals. Heavy metals and microplastics are typically included in two different classes of pollutants but the interaction between these two stressors is poorly understood. During 14 days of experimental manipulation, we examined the adsorption of two heavy metals, copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), leached from an antifouling paint to virgin polystyrene (PS) beads and aged polyvinyl chloride (PVC) fragments in seawater. We demonstrated that heavy metals were released from the antifouling paint to the water and both microplastic types adsorbed the two heavy metals. This adsorption kinetics was described using partition coefficients and mathematical models. Partition coefficients between pellets and water ranged between 650 and 850 for Cu on PS and PVC, respectively. The adsorption of Cu was significantly greater in PVC fragments than in PS, probably due to higher surface area and polarity of PVC. Concentrations of Cu and Zn increased significantly on PVC and PS over the course of the experiment with the exception of Zn on PS. As a result, we show a significant interaction between these types of microplastics and heavy metals, which can have implications for marine life and the environment. These results strongly support recent findings where plastics can play a key role as vectors for heavy metal ions in the marine system. Finally, our findings highlight the importance of monitoring marine litter and heavy metals, mainly associated with antifouling paints, particularly in the framework of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
• 9a0c89cb-dc50-42b7-ba0f-f7305b71ea47 description "Various programs and organizations (IMO, UNEP, IOC UNESCO, FAO) and recently the EU MSFD recognized marine litter (ML) as an issue of global threat from environmental, economic, human health and safety, and aesthetic aspect. Among the efforts to combat the problem adequate monitoring and application of harmonized methodological approaches for quantification are essential. This research presents the results of a pilot assessment of bottom ML in the Black Sea during the MISIS Project Joint Black Sea Cruise (22-31 August, 2013) along 3 transects in the NW Black Sea. The aim of the present study is a pilot quantitative assessment of bottom." assertion.
• a20ad657-2f97-426f-add5-0989e69a2597 description "The demand for marine sand in the Netherlands as well as globally is increasing. Over the last decades, only shallow sand extraction of 2 m below the seabed was allowed on the Dutch Continental Shelf (DCS). To guarantee sufficient supply and to decrease the surface area of direct impact, the Dutch authorities started to promote sand extraction depths over 2 m for sand volumes over 10 million m(3). The ecological effects of deep sand extraction, however, are still largely unknown. Therefore, we investigated short-term effects (0-2.5 y) of deep sand extraction (20-24 m) and compared these with other case studies such as, regular shallow sand extraction on the DCS (2 m) and an 8 m deepened shipping lane. For intercomparison between case studies we used tide-averaged bed shear stress as a generic proxy for environmental and related ecological effects. Bed shear stress can be estimated with a two-dimensional quadratic friction law and showed a decrease from 0.50 to 0.04 N m(-2) in a borrow pit in 20 m deep water and extraction depths up to 24m. Macrozoobenthos in a borrow pit with a tide-averaged bed shear stress of around 0.41 N m(-2) is expected to return back to pre-extraction conditions within 4-6 year. When tide-averaged bed shear stress decreases below 0.17 N m(-2) enhanced macrozoobenthic species richness and biomass can occur. Below a tide-averaged bed shear stress of 0.08 N m(-2), increasing abundance and biomass of brittle stars, white furrow shell (Abra alba) and plaice (platessa platessa) can be expected. Below 0.04 N m(-2), an overdominance and high biomass of brittle stars can be expected whereas demersal fish biomass and species composition may return to reference conditions. Next to changes in faunal composition, a high sedimentation rate can be expected. Ecological data and bed shear stress values were transformed into ecosystem-based design (EBD) rules. At higher flow velocities and larger water depths, larger extraction depths can be applied to achieve desired tide-averaged bed shear stresses for related ecological effects. The EBD rules can be used in the early-design phases of future borrow pits in order to simultaneously maximise sand yields and decrease the surface area of direct impact. The EBD rules and ecological landscaping can also help in implementing the European Union's Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) guidelines and moving to or maintaining Good Environmental Status (GES). (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved." assertion.
• ba95c0e1-6cc8-4547-a487-cebc21a89e54 description "The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) mandates that European Union (EU) member states achieve Good Environmental Status (GEnS) based on an ecosystem-based approach to management. For commercial fisheries, the primary target under the MSFD is one of maximum sustainable yield. Of Black Sea riparian nations, only Romania and Bulgaria are EU member states. Focusing at the supranational level, we review institutions and instruments relevant to management of the Black Sea. The economic values of current fish catches are assessed, and the results of a recent analytical assessment of fish stocks are used to estimate potential future values based on maximum sustainable yields. In the Black Sea region, despite long-standing attempts to improve fisheries management, there remains a lack of effective regional cooperation. Evidence from the scenario analysis suggests that achieving GEnS would not have an undue negative impact on overall fishery sector incomes, and could, with appropriate investments in processing and marketing, deliver increased economic benefits for Black Sea countries. The ongoing policy debate between and within Black Sea coastal states needs to be extended to include recognition of the potential economic and social benefits of effective fisheries management. More work is required to assess returns on investment in interim management measures to deliver GEnS." assertion.
• 21118c03-0a0f-4486-8300-e1936975d67c description "Scientific fisheries surveys routinely identify a large diversity of commercial and non-commercial benthic megainvertebrates that could provide useful information for Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) descriptors. Species is obviously the basic taxonomic level to which most ecological studies and theories refer. Identification at this level of organization is indeed always preferred over any other taxonomic level. Nevertheless, aggregation of species to higher taxonomic levels may be unavoidable sometimes, since errors of identification are known or suspected to occur in many surveys. Using analyses of taxonomic sufficiency (identification of organisms at various taxonomic resolutions) and groups of morphospecies (taxa identified easily by non-experts on the basis of evident morphological traits), this study aims to quantify the loss of ecological information incurred by partial identification of benthic megafauna in bottom trawl surveys in order to put such data to good use. The analyses were conducted on five scientific surveys representing a large range of geographical areas (from 150 km(2) to 150 000 km(2)) and environmental conditions. Results show that genus, family and, particularly, morphospecies are good surrogates for species identification in community analyses. We suggest that bottom trawl surveys can provide reliable megafauna data that may usefully complete those obtained by grab surveys. The use of morphospecies could lead to new strategies, combining different datasets to provide indicators for MSFD descriptors (e.g. D6). (c) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
• 0a820d1b-6cc8-42d6-aa0a-54eaa8d3718c description "Evaluating the state of benthic communities has played an important role in water quality assessments. Indices incorporating species sensitivities, richness and densities are commonly applied. In Europe, the importance of benthic indices has increased in the last years with the implementation of the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) which at the same time demands the applicability of an index across regional scales. To date, environmental variability is rarely considered in benthic indices and most sensitivity rankings have the disadvantages of static values (i.e. the same value in all areas), expert judgement and a limited geographical range. This study presents species sensitivity values calculated along environmental gradients for the Baltic Sea. Sensitivities were calculated according to the procedure of the Benthic Quality Index (BQI). We created a matrix of subregions, classes of salinity, depth and gear to identify comparable subsets for data analysis. Altogether, 19 subsets were defined within the Baltic Sea basins. Sensitivity values were calculated for 329 species out of a total of 678 species that were recorded in this study. Sensitivity values of taxa vary between subsets as it was expected for different environmental conditions. Most sensitivity values can be assigned to species occurring in euhaline and polyhaline waters. Distribution of species with high and low sensitivity values differed along the salinity gradient. In euhaline waters more species with high sensitivity values occurred than species with low sensitivity values, while in mesohaline waters the ratio of high and low sensitivity values among species was almost equal. In oligohaline waters more species with lower sensitivity values were present. For the first time, sensitivity values were calculated for a large number of species using the same method for the entire Baltic Sea. This results in a Baltic-wide comprehensive set of sensitivity values based on a dataset across subregional borders, and divided along environmental gradients and gear type. The same principles can be applied to transient waters from rivers to coastal lagoons as well as to other environments with gradients of, e.g. hydrodynamic characteristics. Publicly available sensitivity values will increase transparency and support the improvement of state assessments under the MSFD. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
• 236dc96e-6f87-4694-bd65-cd172becc1bd description "Despite increasing attention paid to the value of marine resources, in particular marine protected areas (MPAs), their economic valuation focuses mainly on use values of ecosystem services such as fishery and tourism. Furthermore, most MPA related studies are carried out for coastal ecosystems, especially tropical coral reefs. The valuation of remote marine ecosystems is rare. The main objective of this paper is to estimate public willingness to pay (WTP) for alternative management regimes of a network of offshore MPAs in the North Sea under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). In a baseline valuation study carried out just before the adoption of the MSFD, beach visitors and a random sample of coastal and non-coastal residents were asked for their preferences for two alternative management options of three remote, ecologically sensitive areas with multiple use conflicts. Despite the lack of public awareness and familiarity with the offshore marine areas, a majority of 70% is willing to pay extra tax for their protection. Using a conservative value elicitation procedure, Dutch households are willing to pay on average maximum 0.25% of their annual disposable income to ban access and economic use. This serves as an indicator of what a network of remote MPAs in the MSFD is allowed to cost according to the Dutch tax payer. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
• e8bd2bdc-9e1b-4e17-8ac9-3ec2058013fe description "Conventional near-field talker localization methods with microphone-array calculate spatial spectrum in each scanning position of discretized space and each frequency. Hence, elapsed time is increased and real-time processing is difficult. Real-time processing is important for achieving the natural interaction with the speech interfaces. To overcome this problem, we newly propose a talker localization method based on Multi-resolution Scanning in Frequency Domain (MSFD). MSFD utilizes lower spatial resolution in the lower frequency band and higher spatial resolution in the higher frequency band to reduce elapsed time. We also propose a calculation method for suitable spatial resolution at each frequency on the basis of the variances of phase differences among microphones. The results of evaluation experiment indicated that the proposed MSFD could reduce the elapsed time without degrading the localization accuracy." assertion.
• d43e0446-2d50-4015-a092-272403dfbadb description "The European COMMON SENSE project aims to support the implementation of European Union marine policies such as the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). The project has been designed to directly respond to requests for integrated and effective data acquisition systems by developing innovative sensors that will contribute to our understanding of the functioning of marine environments. It aims to develop and provide cost-effective and multi-functional innovative sensors to perform reliable in-situ measurements in the marine environment. The core project research will focus on increasing the availability of standardised data on: eutrophication; concentrations of heavy metals; microplastic fraction within marine litter; underwater noise; and other parameters such as temperature and pressure. This paper will shortly describe the new systems that are developed and the different approaches used during the testing activities" assertion.
• 08d31d8d-50df-4185-96d4-e8b79d51dc0a description "Records of high concentrations of plastic and microplastic marine debris floating in the ocean have led to investigate the presence of microplastics in samples of zooplankton from Portuguese coastal waters. Zooplankton samples collected at four offshore sites, in surveys conducted between 2002 and 2008, with three different sampling methods, were used in this preliminary study. A total of 152 samples were processed and microplastics were identified in 93 of them, corresponding to 61% of the total. Costa Vicentina, followed by Lisboa, were the regions with higher microplastic concentrations (0.036 and 0.033 no. m(-3)) and abundances (0.07 and 0.06 cm(3) m(-3)), respettively. Microplastic: zooplankton ratios were also higher in these two regions, which is probably related to the proximity of densely populated areas and inputs from the Tejo and Sado river estuaries. Microplastics polymers were identified using Micro Fourier Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy (mu-FTIR), as polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP) and polyacrylates (PA). The present work is the first report on the composition of microplastic particles collected with plankton nets in Portuguese coastal waters. Plankton surveys from regular monitoring campaigns conducted worldwide may be used to monitor plastic particles in the oceans and constitute an important and low cost tool to address marine litter within the scope of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (2008/56/EC). (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
• a30e95c2-245d-4df2-94e4-db9b9c2c75d5 description "The EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requires all Member States to establish a program of measures to achieve or maintain Good Environmental Status (GES) of their marine waters, which should be justified on economic grounds. So far, however, only limited efforts exist to support, from a scientific perspective, marine policy- and decision-makers to this direction. This paper describes a first effort towards closing this gap and improving existing marine policymaking processes as regards the prioritization and selection of measures and policies towards coastal and marine resources management. More specifically, the paper presents an expert judgment-based weighting framework named 'MeTaLi'. The tool provides a cost-effectiveness ranking algorithm of alternative measures (e.g. command-and-control, economic, etc.) within the framework of MSFD by means of fuzzy and stochastic analysis. A pilot application of 'MeTali' in Greece for three selected MSFD descriptors is also discussed, aiming to evaluate the tool and allow drawing conclusions for real conditions. Finally, the paper concludes with a discussion of research findings and methodological challenges related to marine policy issues. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
• b35c883f-6a9c-4055-a6a6-3c2cb883d20e description "The European Union Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) uses indicators to track ecosystem state in relation to Good Environmental Status (GES). These indicators were initially expected to be "operational", i.e. to have well-understood relationships between state and specified anthropogenic pressure(s), and to have defined targets. Recent discussion on MSFD implementation has highlighted an additional class of "surveillance" indicators. Surveillance indicators monitor key aspects of the ecosystem for which there is: first, insufficient evidence to define targets and support formal state assessment; and/or second, where links to anthropogenic pressures are either weak or not sufficiently well understood to underpin specific management advice. Surveillance indicators are not only expected to directly track state in relation to GES, but also to provide complementary information (including warning signals) that presents a broader and more holistic picture of state, and inform and support science, policy, and management. In this study, we (i) present a framework for including surveillance indicators into the Activity-Pressure-State-Response process, (ii) consider a range of possible indicators that could perform this surveillance role, and (iii) suggest criteria for assessing the performance of candidate surveillance indicators, which might guide selection of the most effective indicators to perform this function." assertion.
• 956029d7-0a25-4060-8a77-7f203d649fac description "European Union (EU) has taken the lead to promote the management of coastal systems. Management strategies are implemented by the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), as well as the recent Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) Directive. Most EU directives have a strong focus on public participation; however, a recent review found that the actual involvement of stakeholders was variable. The "Architecture and roadmap to manage multiple pressures on lagoons" (ARCH) research project has developed and implemented participative methodologies at different case study sites throughout Europe. These cases represent a broad range of coastal systems, and they highlight different legislative frameworks that are relevant for coastal zone management. Stakeholder participation processes were subsequently evaluated at 3 case study sites in order to assess the actual implementation of participation in the context of their respective legislative frameworks: 1) Byfjorden in Bergen, Norway, in the context of the WFD; 2) Amvrakikos Gulf, Greece, in the context of the MSFD; and 3) Nordre Alv Estuary, Sweden, in the context of the MSP Directive. An overall assessment of the evaluation criteria indicates that the ARCH workshop series methodology of focusing first on the current status of the lagoon or estuary, then on future challenges, and finally on identifying management solutions provided a platform that was conducive for stakeholder participation. Results suggest that key criteria for a good participatory process were present and above average at the 3 case study sites. The results also indicate that the active engagement that was initiated at the 3 case study sites has led to capacity building among the participants, which is an important intermediary outcome of public participation. A strong connection between participatory processes and policy can ensure the legacy of the intermediary outcomes, which is an important and necessary start toward more permanent resource management outcomes such as ecological and economic improvement. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2016; X:000-000. (C) 2016 SETAC" assertion.
• aa12a2d9-68a2-43e0-af3c-e5894e1586d4 description "Chronic low-frequency anthropogenic sound, such as shipping noise, may be negatively affecting marine life. The EU's Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) includes a specific indicator focused on this noise. This indicator is the yearly average sound level in third-octave bands with centre frequencies at 63 Hz and 125 Hz. These levels are described for Falmouth Bay, UK, an active port at the entrance to the English Channel. Underwater sound was recorded for 30 min h(-1) over the period June 2012 to November 2013 for a total of 435 days. Mean third-octave levels were louder in the 125-Hz band (annual mean level of 96.0 dB re 1 mu Pa) than in the 63-Hz band (92.6 dB re 1 mu Pa). These levels and variations are assessed as a function of seasons, shipping activity and wave height, providing comparison points for future monitoring activities, including the MSFD and emerging international regulation. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd." assertion.
• d7dc8699-3c6d-4fb6-b7fb-f71d4cb985e4 description "In this paper is assessed the vulnerability of the benthic habitats potential to deliver ES caused by physical, chemical and biological pressures identified by the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) in the Normand-Breton (Saint Malo) Gulf (GNB), in France. The InVEST Habitat Risk Assessment (HRA) model provides useful information for identifying the regions on the seascape where the impacts of human activities are the highest. Additionally, and because the HRA does not address any ES in particular but the whole set of services offered by marine and coastal ecosystems, we analyze the habitats potential to deliver different types of ES (provisioning, regulating and maintenance, and cultural) using habitats vulnerability as a proxy. Concept-driven scenarios are presented to enable the understanding of existing trade-offs as a consequence of different management options. Results provide relevant ES-based information for managers to communicate with stakeholders and prioritize actions for risk mitigation. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved." assertion.
• 85cba216-03c9-4e4c-a2d7-73a2bef47bf9 description "This article deals with the implementation of ecosystem-based marine management in the Baltic Sea. It explores and documents in particular the preliminary lessons from environmental and fisheries management with reference to the Helsinki Commission Group for implementation of the ecosystem approach and the Baltic Sea Fisheries Forum, both examples of regionalisation processes in order to implement ecosystem-based marine management. The Helsinki Commission Group for implementation of the ecosystem approach is a joint management body for the implementation of the Baltic Sea Action Plan and the European Union's Marine Strategy Framework Directive. The Baltic Sea Fisheries Forum is a new governing body to facilitate regional cooperation in fisheries management The aim of the article is twofold: a) to describe and discuss two different pathways of regionalisation in the Baltic Sea and b) to explore how these forms of regionalisation could contribute to the implementation of governance structures needed to implement ecosystem-based marine management at the level of a regional sea - efficiently, legitimately and effectively. We conclude that a nested governance structure could be developed by building upon existing institutions while learning from new initiatives to organise stakeholder involvement. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
• 9339221a-3332-4305-ad5f-681d1fd1b284 description "Analysis of ecosystem functioning is essential to describe the ecological status of ecosystems and is therefore directly requested in international directives. There is a lack of knowledge regarding functional aspects of benthic communities and their environmental and anthropogenic driving forces in the southern North Sea. This study linked functional composition of epibenthic communities to environmental conditions and fishing effort and investigated spatial correlations between habitat characteristics to gain insight into potential synergistic and/or cumulative effects. Functional composition of epifauna was assessed by using biological trait analysis (BTA), which considered 15 ecological traits of 54 species. Functional composition was related to ten predictor variables derived from sediment composition, bottom temperature and salinity, hydrodynamics, annual primary production and fishing effort. Our results revealed significantly different functional composition between the Dogger Bank, the Oyster Ground, the West and North Frisian coast. Mobility, feeding type, size and adult longevity were the most important traits differentiating the communities. A high proportion of trait modalities related to an opportunistic life mode were obvious in coastal areas especially at the West Frisian coast and in the area of the Frisian Front indicating disturbed communities. In contrast, functional composition in the Dogger Bank area indicated undisturbed communities with prevalence of large, long-lived and permanently attached species being sensitive towards disturbance such as fishing. Tidal stress, mud content of sediments, salinity, stratification and fishing effort were found to be the most important habitat characteristics shaping functional composition. Strong correlations were found between variables, especially between those which changed gradually from the coast to offshore areas including fishing effort. Unfavourable extremes of these factors in coastal areas resulted in disturbed epibenthic communities, while the relative influence of a single factor on functional composition cannot be quantified. Coastal communities seemed to be well adapted to disturbance and the prevalence of opportunistic trait modalities not necessarily revealed a poor ecological status according to the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). The integration of functional aspects into the assessment of ecosystem health is recommended, since widely used structural measures failed in naturally disturbed habitats. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
• 91047f12-26b8-4a6f-bad5-004776213389 description "The Shannon Estuary on the west coast of Ireland is one of Europe's premier deepwater berths catering for ships up to 200,000 deadweight tonnage. It is also Ireland's only designated candidate special area of conservation for bottlenose dolphins under the EU Habitats Directive. Long-term static acoustic monitoring was carried out at a number of intensive shipping sites. In 2012, noise monitoring took place over a 6-month period (at 1 site) as part of Ireland's requirements under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). This is the first assessment of the potential effect of vessel traffic on the behavior of this discrete dolphin population." assertion.
• 8683439c-730f-494c-b208-108cae3c6ade description "The Water Framework Directive (WFD) provides an important legislative opportunity to promote and implement an integrated approach for the protection of inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and ground-waters. The transitional waters constitute a central piece as they are usually under high environmental pressure and by their inherent characteristics present monitoring challenges. Integrating water quality monitoring with biological monitoring can increase the cost-effectiveness of monitoring efforts. One way of doing this is with biomarkers, which effectively integrate physical-chemical status and biological quality elements, dealing holistically with adverse consequences on the health of water bodies. The new Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) already incorporates the biomarker approach. Given the recent activities of OSPAR and HELCOM to harmonize existing monitoring guidelines between MSFD and WFD the use of similar methodologies should be fostered. To illustrate the potential of the biomarker approach, juveniles of flounder (Platichthys flesus) were used to evaluate the quality of the Minho river-estuary water bodies. The use ofjuveniles instead of adults eliminates several confounding factors such changes on the biological responses associated with reproduction. Here, a panel of well-established biomarkers, EROD, AChE, SOD, CAT, GST, IPO, ENA and FACs (1-Hydroxyrene) were selected and measured along with a gradient of different physical conditions, and integrated with.trace elements characterization on both biota and sediments. In general, a clear profile along the water bodies was found, with low seasonal and spatial variation, consistent with a low impacted area. Overall, the results support the use of both the battery of biomarkers and the use of juvenile flounders in the monitoring of the water quality status within the WFD. (C), 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved." assertion.
• 1bd6e5bd-d0c3-44c1-b30d-569c7292ee60 description "The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) seeks to achieve good environmental status, by 2020, for European seas. This study analyses the applicability of a process-driven benthic sedimentary habitat model, to be used in the implementation of the MSFD in relation to biodiversity and seafloor integrity descriptors for sedimentary habitats. Our approach maps the major environmental factors influencing soft-bottom macrobenthic community structure and the life-history traits of species. Among the 16 environmental variables considered, a combination of water depth, mean grain size, a wave-induced sediment resuspension index and annual bottom maximum temperature, are the most significant factors explaining the variability in the structure of benthic communities in the study area. These variables are classified into those representing the 'Disturbance' and 'Scope for Growth' components of the environment. It was observed that the habitat classes defined in the process-driven model reflected different structural and functional characteristics of the benthos. Moreover, benthic community structure anomalies due to human pressures could also be detected within the model produced. Thus, the final process-driven habitat map can be considered as being highly useful for seafloor integrity and biodiversity assessment, within the European MSFD as well as for conservation, environmental status assessment and managing human activities, especially within the marine spatial planning process. (c) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
• b216bb91-47b0-4cf2-83f4-6c77bbe0bee8 description "On June 2013 a workshop at the University of Siena (Italy) was organized to review current knowledge and to clarify what is known, and what remains to be investigated, concerning plastic litter in the sea. The content of the workshop was designed to contribute further to the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) following an inaugural workshop in 2012. Here we report a number of statements relevant to policymakers and scientists that was overwhelming agreement from the participants. Many might view this as already providing sufficient grounds for policy action. At the very least, this early warning of the problems that lie ahead should be taken seriously, and serve as a stimulus for further research. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
• 180e7125-75f2-408c-b375-09d723ef38e3 description "In this paper, we have proposed multiscale fractal dimension (MSFD) technique to characterize signals at multiple time scales. In this technique, multiple scales of the signal are obtained by segment averaging and the complexity of the resulting signals at those scales is quantified using multiresolution area-based fractal dimension measure. The technique is applied to intracranial EEG records and meditation HRV signals to detect change in states of physiological systems. We have considered two types of meditation techniques and pre-meditation state is used as control state against which MSFD parameters are group matched. The proposed MSFD technique has provided good performance and statistically significant results in discriminating epileptic seizures and meditation states from corresponding controls. The technique can be used in diverse applications of signal processing." assertion.
• a28b139d-7b95-46d1-b891-961a1ba00330 description "In the UK, most marine benthic monitoring is carried out in a piecemeal fashion, funded by different sectors of industry that utilise the marine environment under licence. Monitoring requirements are imposed by licence conditions, which can vary considerably between licences. The UK Government also conducts marine environmental surveys in support of its legislative commitments. The present investigation reviews these different monitoring approaches to highlight whether synergies between them could be developed into an integrated approach to marine benthic monitoring. An integrated approach would have ecological benefits, as greater consistency in sampling and analytical protocols would reduce uncertainty in the predictions of impact, and facilitate the assessment of Good Environmental Status under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive. The same approach would also be of financial benefit, as spatio-temporal duplication in sampling would be reduced, and the value of acquired data would be Maximised, resulting in a more efficient and cost-effective approach. Crown Copyright (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
• aa087e78-5027-4635-b915-f394d0c1e656 description "The restoration of missing data is an important concern for data analysis. In this paper, an algorithmically innovative model termed multiple sine function decomposition (MSFD) model is proposed and developed for restoring the missing data about monthly average temperature (MAT) of Guangzhou, which is a representative major city of China. The proposed MSFD model is formed by successive approximation based on the existing data. After that, the MSFD model with parameters and structure determined is exploited to restore the missing data. Experimental results indicate that the proposed MSFD model can effectively estimate the intentionally removed data, and the values of the restored data are quite close to the values of the true data. In addition, with quantitative and qualitative analysis, the effectiveness of the proposed model is further illustrated." assertion.
• 55aa76ec-cde3-430b-8001-073a7641fab5 description "The Marine Strategy Framework (Directive 2008/56/EC, MSFD) came into force in 2008, confirming the increased political interest in the oceans observed in recent years, and the change in the philosophy of environmental management, which has resulted in the development of many initiatives to guide the conservation, protection and sustainable management of marine ecosystems. This Directive is the key environmental instrument of the European Union (EU) maritime policy, and establishes that Member States shall adopt the necessary measures to achieve or maintain the Good Environmental Status of the marine environment by 2020. The central part of the MSFD is formed by the 'marine strategies', which have to be developed by the Member States for the marine waters under their jurisdiction. The implementation of the MSFD represents a demanding task in the integrative assessment of marine ecosystems. Here we describe the implementation process, and we discuss the institutional framework and the main difficulties and challenges encountered so far, with emphasis on the Spanish context. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
• de1fa4d3-3898-4f25-b650-46dd908764d4 description "European marine waters include four regional seas that provide valuable ecosystem services to humans, including fish and other seafood. However, these marine environments are threatened by pressures from multiple anthropogenic activities and climate change. The European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) was adopted in 2008 to achieve good environmental status (GEnS) in European Seas by year 2020, using an Ecosystem Approach. GEnS is to be assessed using 11 descriptors and up to 56 indicators. In the present analysis two descriptors namely "commercially exploited fish and shellfish populations" and "food webs" were used to evaluate the status of subareas of FAO 27 area. Data on life history parameters, trophic levels and fisheries related data of cod, haddock, saithe, herring, plaice, whiting, hake and sprat were obtained from the FishBase online database and advisory reports of International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES). Subareas inhabited by r and K strategists were identified using interrelationships of life history parameters of commercially important fish stocks. Mean trophic level (MTL) of fish community each subarea was calculated and subareas with species of high and low trophic level were identified. The Fish in Balance (FiB) index was computed for each subarea and recent trends of FiB indices were analysed. The overall environmental status of each subarea was evaluated considering life history trends, MTL and FiB Index. The analysis showed that subareas I, II, V, VIII and IX were assessed as "good" whereas subareas III, IV, VI and VII were assessed as "poor". The subareas assessed as "good" were subject to lower environmental pressures, (less fishing pressure, less eutrophication and more water circulation), while the areas with "poor" environment experienced excessive fishing pressure, eutrophication and disturbed seabed. The evaluation was based on two qualitative descriptors ("commercially exploited fish and shellfish populations" and "food webs") is therefore more robust (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)." assertion.
• 5cc1cbf6-dcf3-41f8-b2ad-9d9574888d62 description "The Marine and Coastal Atlas was developed in the frame of MISIS project - MSFD GUIDING IMPROVEMENTS IN THE BLACK SEA INTEGRATED MONITORING SYSTEM. The overall goal of the project is to support efforts to protect and restore the environmental quality and sustainability of the Black Sea and also to develop a national integrated monitoring program in line with MSFD standards. This paper provides an overview of the current marine monitoring in the Black Sea, Romanian part. It aims to identify the temporal and spatial gaps, also the type of parameters and it serves as a basis for a decisions related to monitoring activities. Biological and physical parameters are in point format, representing reported stations, defined by coordinates. For each group of parameters, there are maps, charts and tables explaining in detail each indicator - frequency of samples for each point stations frequency, through different size and colors. MISIS coastal and marine atlas consist in a web-map server, a metadata catalogue and the online application. Map Server application was used to incorporate vector and raster data and to access external data through a WebMapService and Smart Atlas application was used as the interface. The online application (http://smartatlas.misisproject.eu/smartatlas/) includes a collection of GIS data layers (vector and raster) representing different national and international monitoring networks (from research institutes, universities, national and local authorities and stakeholders), physical, chemical and biological parameters, statistical analysis, protected areas and general information. The system also features advanced data control such as layer lists, feature selection, tables with information about each item, metadata viewing and links to websites, documents and auxiliary data. The Atlas consists like a portal to coastal data and information from diverse sources national monitoring programs, measurements from different national and international projects such as SeaDataNet or EMODNET." assertion.
• 6e8ec964-b179-4192-b773-8e177fc6f398 description "The impact of microplastics (plastic fragments smaller than 5 mm) on large filter feeding marine organisms such as baleen whales and sharks are largely unknown. These species potentially are ingesting micro-litter by filter feeding activity. Here we present the case studies of the Mediterranean fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus) and basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus) exploring the toxicological effects of microplastics in these species measuring the levels of phthalates in both species. The results show higher concentration of MEHP in the muscle of basking shark in comparison to fin whale blubber. These species can be proposed as indicators of microplastics in the pelagic environment in the implementation of Descriptor 8 and 10 of the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). (c) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
• 0a257616-b449-4845-923f-e269c5379dff description "In this paper, a novel weighted-combination-of-components (WCC) method is proposed for modeling and forecasting trend and seasonal time series, and such a method is based on decomposition model which regards the time series as the weighted combination of trend, seasonality and other components. Specifically, the Holt's two-parameter exponential smoothing (HTPES) method is improved (for short, the IHTPES method) to evaluate the trend with linearly declining increments; and the multiple sine functions decomposition (MSFD) method is developed to evaluate the seasonality. Then the weighted combination of the evaluations is obtained to estimate the global time series. Numerical experiment results substantiate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed WCC method in terms of modeling and forecasting time series from the NN3 competition." assertion.
• 6e929fd2-4b1e-48fe-9f04-463c1f396d29 description "This paper provides new data on the swordfish harpoon fishery carried out during 1999-2011 in Italian waters (central Mediterranean Sea), concerning fleet structure and its changes over the last decade, spatial distribution of fishing effort and catches, trend of catch rates, size composition of catches as well as fishing of other species. These data were partially used to implement the MSFD Initial Assessment of Descriptor 3 for Italian waters, and could be useful for the forthcoming application of the EcAp (Ecosystem Approach) process, regarding Ecological Objective 3. Swordfish harpoon fishery is a typical artisanal practice, characterized by selective catches as well as by cherished cultural traditions, being one of the most ancient fisheries in the Mediterranean Sea, with lengthy traditions and close links with local culture. Fishing capacity showed a low, stable level during the sampling period. Fishing effort, in terms of days at sea, was more intense in GSA 19 than in GSA 10, whereas CPUE often resulted higher during June and July in GSA 10 due to the occurrence of fish belonging to pairs during the reproduction period. Over the period 1999-2009, the percentage of females larger than L-50 increased up to almost 100% of the catch in both GSA 10 and GSA 19, underlining the high selectivity of this fishing practice, and might be the result of enforcing strict management measures on Mediterranean swordfish stock in recent years. This study also provided some information on the catch of Tetrapturus belone, whose stock is today regarded as data-poor. (C) 2014 Published by Elsevier B.V." assertion.
• f69e6883-d565-41e8-8f71-053dd4737c76 description "Marine governance in European seas is at a crossroad aiming towards implementation of eco-system based marine management (EBMM) through integration of different EU policies or directives to protect the environment, while at the same time expected to facilitate growth and employment in support of the blue economy. This article shows that the governance landscape at the regional sea level is very complex, fragmented and faced with several dilemmas. It examines the present governance structures in the four European seas (Baltic, Black, and Mediterranean Seas and North East Atlantic Ocean). It is argued that the implementation of EBMM at the regional sea level is characterized by a highly fragmented European governance system where there is lack of coordination between relevant DGs within the European Commission, between EU, International organisations, Regional Sea Conventions and the Member States and between sectoral governance arrangements that should provide sectoral management measures that support EBMM. The article develops suggestions for a nested governance system in which institutions, policies, laws and sectors are nested into a tiered, internally consistent and mutually re-enforcing planning and decision-making system. Developing institutional interaction and soft modes of governance between the EU, the Regional Sea Conventions, Member States and the governance arrangements of the different marine sectors will be crucial in evolving towards such a nested governance system for EBMM. Moreover, there is no one size fits all approach in implementing EBMM, which means that for each European Sea a context-dependent nested governance system should be developed. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
• adf079cb-ee0d-4f81-aac0-4eb28324d80d description "In the marine sciences an increasing number of studies on environmental changes, their causes, and environmental assessments emerged in recent years. Often authors use non-uniform and inconsistent definitions of key terms like driver, threats, pressures etc. Although all of these studies clearly define causal dependencies between the interacting socio-economic and environmental systems in an understandable way, still an overall imprecise wording could induce misunderstanding at higher policy levels when it comes to integrated ecosystems assessments. Therefore we recommend using unified definitions for a better communication between science and management within national, regional and international environmental policies, for example the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). With this article we provide definitions compatible with the driver-pressure-state-impact-response (DPSIR) approach. Although most examples are MSFD related and thus have a marine focus the definitions are intended to be equally applicable for other systems and are usable world-wide. We suggest sticking to these definitions for an easy and simplified knowledge transfer from science to management, since DPSIR model is already accepted as a helpful tool for structuring and communicating ecosystem analyses. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd." assertion.
• 0e76a0fd-6cad-4f05-b941-8f98c93b08a6 description "This introduction explains the context and structure of a block of articles developed as part of the governance work packages of the FP7 project: "Options for Delivering Ecosystem-based Marine management" (ODEMM). (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
• 82d6ea58-e343-47ca-9f1f-bf100572eff6 description "Biological systems are the ultimate recipients of pollutant-induced damage. Consequently, our traditional reliance on analytical tools is not enough to assess ecosystem health. Biological responses or biomarkers are therefore also considered to be important tools for environmental hazard and risk assessments. Due to historical mining, other anthropogenic activities, and its conservational importance (e.g. NATURA sites, SACs), the Tamar estuary in South West England is an ideal environment in which to examine applications of such biological tools. This review presents a thorough and critical evaluation of the different biological tools used in the Tamar estuary thus far, while also discussing future perspectives for biomarker studies from a global perspective. In particular, we focus on the challenges which hinder applications of biological tools from being more readily incorporated into regulatory frameworks, with the aim of enabling both policymakers and primary stakeholders to maximise the environmental relevance and regulatory usefulness of such tools. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
• 7f113bdc-d12f-4e88-9bd5-feb17a56bc1d description "The Marine Strategy Framework Directive requires EU Member States to sample and monitor marine litter. Criteria for sampling and detecting spatial and/or temporal variation in the amount of litter present have been developed and initiated throughout Europe. These include implementing standardised sampling and recording methods to enable cross-comparison and consistency between neighbours. Parameters of interest include; litter occurrence, composition, distribution and source. This paper highlights the litter-related initiatives occurring in Irish waters; presents an offshore benthic litter sampling series; provides a power analysis to determine trend detection thresholds; identifies areas and sources of litter; and proposes improvements to meet reporting obligations. Litter was found to be distributed throughout Irish waters with highest occurrences in the Celtic Sea. Over 50% of litter encountered was attributed to fishing activities: however only a small proportion of the variability in litter occurrence could be explained by spatial patterns in fishing effort. Issues in implementing standardised protocol were observed and addressed. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
• fbe651da-39e2-492f-89e9-2561a4e6e130 description "The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requires that European Union Member States achieve "Good Environmental Status" (GES) in respect of 11 Descriptors of the marine environment by 2020. Of those, Descriptor 4, which focuses on marine food webs, is perhaps the most challenging to implement since the identification of simple indicators able to assess the health of highly dynamic and complex interactions is difficult. Here, we present the proposed food web criteria/indicators and analyse their theoretical background and applicability in order to highlight both the current knowledge gaps and the difficulties associated with the assessment of GES. We conclude that the existing suite of indicators gives variable focus to the three important food web properties: structure, functioning and dynamics, and more emphasis should be given to the latter two and the general principles that relate these three properties. The development of food web indicators should be directed towards more integrative and process-based indicators with an emphasis on their responsiveness to multiple anthropogenic pressures. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
• 095f8ba0-12c8-4073-9e68-95680f01edd3 description "The EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) is structured into eleven descriptors of good environmental status (GES). For each descriptor the current status of the marine environment should be assessed against its GES using ecosystem criteria and indicators. Within Descriptor 3 (D3) the MSFD addresses the status of exploited fish stocks according to three criteria (exploitation rate, stock size and size structure). This study performed an MSFD-compliant assessment of exploited fish stocks in the North Sea by aggregating data from analytical stock assessments and scientific research surveys to calculate indicator metrics for each criterion within each stock time-series. A stock achieved GES, when each indicator for each criterion had a good status. Of 43 assessed fish stock suggested by the EU Data Collection Framework, 63% (27) achieved GES. Though the MSFD explicitly demands that all exploited fish stocks achieve GES, this demand may be challenged by reality, because the status of exploited stocks depends not only on fishing impacts, but also on environmental conditions and ecological interactions. Therefore an alternative approach based on binomial distributions is presented to define limits for GES at the descriptor level. The implications and pitfalls of the applied assessment methods are discussed." assertion.
• 4d43d11f-0d23-4bb8-be74-a420d5e82dd4 description "In order to test the response of phytoplankton to anthropogenic pressure, data of chlorophyll a concentration, phytoplankton abundance, and composition are analyzed in relation to anthropogenic pressure gradient and environmental variables such as temperature, salinity and nutrients. Investigated sites encompassed wide tropic range according to a prelimihary determination of anthropogenic pressure, quantified through the LUSI index. Statistical analyses indicated nitrates and silicates as proxies of freshwater influence, and phytoplankton single metrics such as concentrations of chlorophyll a and abundances as indicators of anthropogenic pressure. Boundary values for different water quality classes for coastal waters under indirect freshwater influence (Type II) are obtained according to gradient between concentration of chlorophyll a and pressure index (LUSI), which empirically fit to exponential equation. The response of phytoplankton diversity was not linear, as the highest diversity was observed in the area with intermediate disturbance level. CCA analysis identified Skeletonema marina, Scrippsiella trochoidea, Guinardia flaccida, Leptocylindrus spp., Prorocentrum spp., Proboscia alata, Eutreptiella spp., and Pseudonitzschia spp. as local eutrophication indicators, whose abundances increased with nutrients loads. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd." assertion.
• 03cfcc9a-0ba1-470e-b539-e96af138dbba description "The European Union Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) includes four descriptors of Good Environmental Status (GES) which are affected by fishing activity. These descriptors are: biodiversity, fish stocks, foodweb, and seabed integrity. This paper shows how these descriptors can be related to variables within an ecological model and how an ecological model can be used to analyse whether the fishing pressure that is estimated based on bioeconomic criteria is within general sustainable limits. The paper presents an example of such an analysis of the Eastern Baltic cod fishery using two models: a bioeconomic model and an ecological model. The models are calibrated based on historic data. The mapping between the descriptors specified by MSFD and variables available for analysis in the models is incomplete, e. g. genetics and spatial structures are not included in the models. The models can be used strategically, providing a qualitative understanding of the anticipated relative changes." assertion.
• 555658af-327a-421b-8ec8-856e7ff83020 description "Marine litter is one descriptor in the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). This study provides the first account of an MSFD indicator (Trends in the amount of litter deposited on coastlines) for the north-western Adriatic. Five beaches were sampled in 2015. Plastic dominated in terms of abundance, followed by paper and other groups. The average density was 0.2 litter items m(-2), but at one beach it raised to 0.57 items m(-2). The major categories were cigarette butts, unrecognizable plastic pieces, bottle caps, and others. The majority of marine litter came from land-based sources: shoreline and recreational activities, smoke-related activities and dumping. Sea-based sources contributed for less. The abundance and distribution of litter seemed to be particularly influenced by beach users, reflecting inadequate disposal practices. The solution to these problems involves implementation and enforcement of local educational and management policies. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
• dc2b84c2-5747-4f70-9594-bbd81a78bc77 description "The Pilot Project SeaCleaner is a citizen science and educational project, developed by the Institute of Marine Sciences of the Italian Research Council (CNR-ISMAR). Since 2013, it has involved environmental nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), volunteers, five Italian Marine Protected Areas surrounding the Pelagos Sanctuary, and so far more than 50 high school students within the Italian program for work-related learning internships. The project aims to overcome the lack of current data on marine littera gap of knowledge that cannot be ignored any longer, according to the last European Union's ambitious Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD)by building an app for Android devices, which is easy to use and, at the same time, methodologically sound and comprehensive. This should enable a continuous census (in time and space) for supporting the proper management and removal of solid waste (through scheduled campaigns, etc.). The project has multiple effects: (1) to prompt students to broaden their scientific knowledge on topics not strictly related to scholastic curricula, making them aware of current environmental problems and teaching them how to solve them; (2) to engage an increasing number of volunteers in marine litter monitoring activities; and (3) to contribute to a common protocol for data acquisition, useful for both environmental and scientific purposes, helping scientists to overcome the lack of current data on marine litter." assertion.
• 32291cf8-6a3d-4a44-800e-31931a0bbbec description "This work evaluated the presence and the frequency of occurrence of marine litter in the gastrointestinal tract of 31 Caretta caretta found stranded or accidentally bycaught in the North Tyrrhenian Sea. Marine debris were present in 71% of specimens and were subdivided in different categories according to Fulmar Protocol (OSPAR 2008). The main type of marine debris found was user plastic, with the main occurrence of sheetlike user plastic. The small juveniles showed a mean +/- SD of marine debris items of 19.00 +/- 23.84, while the adult specimens showed higher values of marine litter if compared with the juveniles (26.87 +/- 35.85). The occurrence of marine debris observed in this work confirms the high impact of marine debris in the Mediterranean Sea in respect to other seas and oceans, and highlights the importance of Caretta caretta as good indicator for marine litter in the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) of European Union. 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
• 9438e26c-0950-479b-896c-bf1f97f3779c description "The Marine Strategy Framework Directive has become the key instrument for marine conservation in European seas. We review its implementation, focusing on cetacean biodiversity, using the examples of Spain and the Regional Seas Convention, OSPAR. The MSFD has been widely criticised for legal vagueness, lack of coordination, uncertainty about funding, and poor governance; its future role within EU Integrated Maritime Policy remains unclear. Nevertheless, the first stages of the process have run broadly to schedule: current status, environmental objectives and indicators have been described and the design of monitoring programmes is in progress, drawing on experience with other environmental legislation. The MSFD is now entering its critical phase, with lack of funding for monitoring, limited scope for management interventions, and uncertainty about how conservation objectives will be reconciled with the needs of other marine and maritime sectors, being among the main concerns. Clarity in governance, about the roles of the EU, Member States, Regional Seas Conventions and stakeholders, is needed to ensure success. However, even if (as seems likely) good environmental status cannot be achieved by 2020, significant steps will have been taken to place environmental sustainability centre-stage in the development of Integrated Maritime Policy for EU seas." assertion.
• e24e1ba4-bb6a-4124-85be-bc454421e8da description "The FP7 funded TROPOS project approach is to develop a modular multi-use platform for use in deep waters, coupling several activities, amongst which aquaculture production and renewable energy conversion, with a focus on the Mediterranean, tropical and sub-tropical regions. In this paper, the environmental monitoring, safety and security aspects of designing multi-purpose offshore platforms are considered. Contributions of the FP7 NeXOS and PERSEUS projects further emphasise the innovations available for enhancing this approach." assertion.
• b7055a28-c41c-4a9f-bf1c-bdf891331986 description "The transboundary nature of the marine environment requires concerted actions among neighbouring countries to improve its quality in an effective way. Coordination at international level is particularly important during the implementation of environmental policies aimed at reducing the widespread pressures derived from activities, such as shipping and fishing. The European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) aims to protect and improve the status of a wide range of ecosystem components with a regional focus, promoting cooperation among countries and integration with other environmental policies. In 2014, the European Commission assessed the level of adequacy, consistency and coherence achieved by Member States during the implementation of the first phase of the MSFD and hence this paper focuses on the cross-border coherence and coordination within one marine region in order to achieve the goals of the Directive. In particular, it identifies and analyses the main differences among the results of the implementation of the first phase of the MSFD across the North-East Atlantic region. This analysis shows that, in general, the use of existing data, methodologies and targets from related environmental policies corresponds to the higher levels of coherence among countries while a limited use of such policies produces less coherence. This suggests that the European Commission, Regional Seas Conventions and Member States should work together to identify the real connection between the MSFD and other policies to make a proper use of existing data and approaches and to harmonise different policy objectives. In particular, the review shows what might be termed a 'paradox of coherence' amongst Member States where coherence of action has to be achieved within a European policy of subsidiarity, the act of Member States having control over the way they implement framework directives. This can be regarded as a fundamental flaw in having a 'Framework Directive' instead of the greater control in a 'Directive'. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
• ab2f3083-a956-47f8-8a2c-66d61c4c4df0 description "The main objective of recent international legislative measures and policies concerning marine ecosystems is to ensure sustainable environmental management to maintain a good status for marine waters, habitats and resources, with the ultimate target of achieving an integrated ecosystem-based approach to management. Because bioinvasions pose significant threats to marine ecosystems and the goods and services these provide, non-indigenous species (NIS) are included in the more recent legislative documents. A major challenge for the scientific community is to translate the principles of the legislative directives into a realistic, integrated ecosystem-based approach and at the same time provide stakeholders with best practices for managing NIS. The aim of this paper, prepared by members of the Working Group on Introductions and Transfers of Marine Organisms (WGITMO) of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), is to provide guidance for the application of NIS related management in the European Union Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). Ten recommendations, including NIS identification, standardization of sampling and data, indicators, propagule pressure and management issues are considered in this paper. While most of these suggestions were developed to improve the implementation of the MSFD, several may be more widely applicable. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
• a65606fa-88e1-4440-aa2b-0da71d93fce1 description "The implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) is directing European marine research towards the coordinated and integrated assessment of sea environmental status, following the ecosystem-based approach. The MSFD uses a set of 11 descriptors which, together, summarise the way in which the whole system functions. As such, the European Commission has proposed an extensive set of indicators, to assess environmental status. Hence, taking account of the large amount of data available for the Basque coast (southern Bay of Biscay), together with a recent proposal for assessment within the MSFD, an integrated environmental status assessment approach is developed (for the first time) in this contribution. The strengths and weaknesses of the method, combined with proposals from the MSFD, are discussed. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
• 66c451ab-b42d-4b1a-b9e0-25475c489b49 description "While the development of maritime economic activity is increasingly encouraged, the consideration of its impacts constitutes a real challenge. The limitations of the implementation of the mitigation hierarchy have been widely discussed in scientific literature, yet data on marine biodiversity offset practices remains scarce. In this study, we investigated the use of Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) as suitable instruments to achieve the No Net Loss objective. Drawing on a French approach developed for the initial assessment of the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive, we examined the pressures and impacts related to various marine development projects and the effectiveness of the mitigation hierarchy in limiting these. An analysis of 55 recent French environmental impact studies showed that only 7% of the proposed measures had the aim of offsetting predicted degradation of sites of remarkable biodiversity. This can be partly explained by the lack of a clear definition of 'significant impact', which varies greatly depending on what is impacted, in turn allowing socioeconomic activities to benefit more easily from offset. Furthermore, offsetting does not always constitute the final step of the mitigation hierarchy, highlighting the need to reinforce avoidance and reduction steps. Although we acknowledge the role of EIA in mitigating the negative impacts of development projects, synergies with other European marine environmental policies such as the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) and the Maritime Spatial Planning directive (MSP) should be developed in order to improve current practices. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc All rights reserved." assertion.
• 39d1368e-1987-4cdb-a198-ca8dfab4f823 description "Biogenic reefs created by Modiolus modiolus (Linnaeus, 1758) (horse mussel reefs) are marine habitats which support high levels of species biodiversity and provide valuable ecosystem services. Currently, M. modiolus reefs are listed as a threatened and/or declining species and habitat in all OSPAR regions and thus are highlighted as a conservation priority under the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). Determining patterns of larval dispersal and genetic connectivity of remaining horse mussel populations can inform management efforts and is a critical component of effective marine spatial planning (MSP). Larval dispersal patterns and genetic structure were determined for several M. modiolus bed populations in the Irish Sea including those in Wales (North Pen Llyn), Isle of Man (Point of Ayre) and Northern Ireland (Ards Peninsula and Strangford Lough). Simulations of larval dispersal suggested extant connectivity between populations within the Irish Sea. Results from the genetic analysis carried out using newly developed microsatellite DNA markers were consistent with those of the biophysical model. Results indicated moderately significant differentiation between the Northern Ireland populations and those in the Isle of Man and Wales. Simulations of larval dispersal over a 30 day pelagic larval duration (PLD) suggest that connectivity over a spatial scale of 150km is possible between some source and sink populations. However, it appears unlikely that larvae from Northern Ireland will connect directly with sites on the Llyn or Isle of Man. It also appears unlikely that larvae from the Llyn connect directly to any of the other sites. Taken together the data establishes a baseline for underpinning management and conservation of these important and threatened marine habitats in the southern part of the known range." assertion.
• ba65cd62-430f-4b99-bf48-7298407446b4 description "The European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requires European states to maintain their marine waters in 'Good Environmental Status'. The MSFD includes 11 descriptors of "Good Environmental Status" (GES), including "Sea-floor Integrity". This descriptor is defined as: "Sea-floor integrity is at a level that ensures that the structure and functions of the ecosystems are safeguarded and benthic ecosystems, in particular, are not adversely affected." This contribution briefly summarizes the main conclusions of an international expert group established to review the scientific basis for making this concept operational. The experts concluded that consideration of 8 attributes of the seabed system would provide adequate information to meet requirements of the MSFD: (i) substratum, (ii) bioengineers, (iii) oxygen concentration, (iv) contaminants and hazardous substances, (v) species composition, (vi) size distribution, (vii) trophodynamics and (viii) energy flow and life history traits. The experts further concluded that "Good Environmental Status" cannot be defined exclusively as "pristine Environmental Status", but rather status when impacts of all uses were sustainable. Uses are sustainable if two conditions are met: the pressures associated with those uses do not hinder the ecosystem components to retain their natural diversity, productivity and dynamic ecological processes recovery from perturbations such that the attributes lie within their range of historical natural variation must be rapid and secure. No single specific suite of indicators is proposed, both because no single set of indicators will meet the needs of all EU countries in all regional seas, and because according to the MSFD indicator selection is the prerogative of individual states. However, the need for conceptual consistency in assessing GES throughout European seas should be served if the selection of indicators and the integration of their information content in assessing GES follow the guidance in the report of the TG on Seafloor Integrity. This guidance is presented here in summary form. Informed by this report European Commission selected as indicators for the Sea-floor Integrity: (i) type, abundance, biomass and areal extent of relevant biogenic substrate; (ii) extent of the seabed significantly affected by human activities for the different substrate types; (iii) presence of particularly sensitive and/or tolerant species; (iv) multi-metric indices assessing benthic community condition and functionality, such as species diversity and richness, proportion of opportunistic to sensitive species; (v) proportion of biomass or number of individuals in the macrobenthos above some specified length/size; and (vi) parameters describing the characteristics (shape, slope and intercept) of the size spectrum of the benthic community. Crown Copyright (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
• 7e78ef8f-7b74-45aa-a877-5bd5c2828788 description "The impact of man-made underwater noise on the marine environment has recently received increased attention from regulatory authorities, as evidenced by inclusion in the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). Radiated underwater noise from ships, primarily resulting from propeller cavitation, has for many years been understood to be one of the major contributors to ambient ocean noise. Civilian research in this area has to date been relatively limited; standards covering the measurement of radiated noise from ships in deep water and associated data analysis procedures have only recently been published by national and international standards institutes. Less attention has so far been paid to the measurement of radiated noise from ships in shallow water environments. This is of interest as shallow water areas are more likely to be used by civilian researchers due to the logistical problems involved in undertaking trials in deep water. The issue of shipping noise has been identified as one requiring further research, indicated by the recent funding of several large collaborative projects by the EU (e.g. the SILENV, AQUO and SONIC projects). This paper presents ship radiated noise data measured using a three hydrophone array during a sea trial undertaken as part of the SONIC project. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved." assertion.
• a0787971-6f49-4cad-8fdc-220e53fa0646 description "ISPRA, on behalf of the Italian Ministry of Environment, carried out the initial assessment of environmental quality status of the 3 Italian subregions (Mediterranean Sea Region) on Descriptor 9. The approach adopted to define the GES started to verify that contaminants in fish and other seafood for human consumption did not exceed levels established by Community legislation (Reg. 1881/2006 and further updates). As the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requires to use health tools to assess the environment, Italy decided to adopt a statistical range of acceptance of thresholds identified by national (D. Lgs. 152/2006 concerning water quality required for mussel farms) and international legislation (Reg. 1881/2006 and further updates), which allowed to use the health results and to employ them for the assessment of environmental quality. Italy proposed that Good Environmental Status (GES) is achieved when concentrations are lower than statistical range of acceptance, estimated on samples of fish and fishery products coming from only national waters. GIS-based approach a to perform different integration levels for station, cell's grid and years, was used; the elaborations allowed to judge the environmental quality good." assertion.
• c32fe02d-28de-4969-84db-2276a0e8ff19 description "Oficial periodic report: Bollettino Mensile Campi Flegrei 2016_12.pdf" assertion.
• fcce468c-0cd3-4a23-8d7e-f96ff1f5d6c6 description "Oficial periodic report: Bollettino Mensile Campi Flegrei 2017_01.pdf" assertion.
• c48eff40-ac41-4d40-9966-a69203c25045 description "Oficial periodic report: Bollettino Mensile Ischia 2016_12.pdf" assertion.
• c48eff40-ac41-4d40-9966-a69203c25045 description "Oficial periodic report: Bollettino Mensile Ischia 2016_12.pdf" assertion.
• c6e76ebd-31f0-4d45-b62e-56c9611cd439 description "Oficial periodic report: Bollettino Mensile Ischia 2017_01.pdf" assertion.
• c6e76ebd-31f0-4d45-b62e-56c9611cd439 description "Oficial periodic report: Bollettino Mensile Ischia 2017_01.pdf" assertion.
• 23ddfd70-f74b-4321-a938-fd8c98a31243 description "Oficial periodic report: Bollettino Mensile Vesuvio 2016_12.pdf" assertion.
• 23ddfd70-f74b-4321-a938-fd8c98a31243 description "Oficial periodic report: Bollettino Mensile Vesuvio 2016_12.pdf" assertion.
• 439fec35-4f83-497a-af1c-af278cfd104e description "Oficial periodic report: Bollettino Mensile Vesuvio 2017_01.pdf" assertion.
• 439fec35-4f83-497a-af1c-af278cfd104e description "Oficial periodic report: Bollettino Mensile Vesuvio 2017_01.pdf" assertion.
• 8c74c557-7b15-4db7-91f4-ff17d98ee256 description "Oficial periodic report: Bollettino_Vulcani_Campani_ 2014_01.pdf" assertion.
• 8c74c557-7b15-4db7-91f4-ff17d98ee256 description "Oficial periodic report: Bollettino_Vulcani_Campani_ 2014_01.pdf" assertion.
• ccab6df5-0d43-420a-b4c0-39a7af95ad69 description "Oficial periodic report: Bollettino_Vulcani_Campani_ 2014_02.pdf" assertion.
• ccab6df5-0d43-420a-b4c0-39a7af95ad69 description "Oficial periodic report: Bollettino_Vulcani_Campani_ 2014_02.pdf" assertion.
• cfdf6cd8-fc37-46b0-90e1-a46f8dbf2617 description "Oficial periodic report: Bollettino_Vulcani_Campani_ 2014_04.pdf" assertion.
• cfdf6cd8-fc37-46b0-90e1-a46f8dbf2617 description "Oficial periodic report: Bollettino_Vulcani_Campani_ 2014_04.pdf" assertion.
• 321e914d-6dea-435d-9b1e-4df4443e0fdd description "Oficial periodic report: Bollettino_Vulcani_Campani_ 2014_05.pdf" assertion.
• 321e914d-6dea-435d-9b1e-4df4443e0fdd description "Oficial periodic report: Bollettino_Vulcani_Campani_ 2014_05.pdf" assertion.
• 57bd19d3-ade9-4b26-aeb3-af6a363bb271 description "Oficial periodic report: Bollettino_Vulcani_Campani_ 2014_06.pdf" assertion.
• 57bd19d3-ade9-4b26-aeb3-af6a363bb271 description "Oficial periodic report: Bollettino_Vulcani_Campani_ 2014_06.pdf" assertion.
• e9da5c99-1363-4d70-a3c5-8204f16e2af5 description "Oficial periodic report: Bollettino_Vulcani_Campani_2014_09.pdf" assertion.
• e9da5c99-1363-4d70-a3c5-8204f16e2af5 description "Oficial periodic report: Bollettino_Vulcani_Campani_2014_09.pdf" assertion.
• a10cecca-17aa-4abc-8106-c4940c6f9b14 description "Oficial periodic report: Bollettino_Vulcani_Campani_2014_10.pdf" assertion.
• a10cecca-17aa-4abc-8106-c4940c6f9b14 description "Oficial periodic report: Bollettino_Vulcani_Campani_2014_10.pdf" assertion.
• 85e12adc-7ba6-4f60-a95d-1982c61395b0 description "Oficial periodic report: Bollettino_Vulcani_Campani_2014_11.pdf" assertion.
• 85e12adc-7ba6-4f60-a95d-1982c61395b0 description "Oficial periodic report: Bollettino_Vulcani_Campani_2014_11.pdf" assertion.
• 8eb1de6f-39cd-45b1-a303-72683d66b5c9 description "Oficial periodic report: Bollettino_Vulcani_Campani_2014_12.pdf" assertion.
• 8eb1de6f-39cd-45b1-a303-72683d66b5c9 description "Oficial periodic report: Bollettino_Vulcani_Campani_2014_12.pdf" assertion.
• a487b545-b471-4a3f-9e4b-e2b8c3108a5e description "Oficial periodic report: Bollettino_Vulcani_Campani_2015_01.pdf" assertion.
• a487b545-b471-4a3f-9e4b-e2b8c3108a5e description "Oficial periodic report: Bollettino_Vulcani_Campani_2015_01.pdf" assertion.
• a8ad24cb-4a27-4d62-aefe-7a12613ed862 description "Oficial periodic report: Bollettino_Vulcani_Campani_2015_02.pdf" assertion.
• a8ad24cb-4a27-4d62-aefe-7a12613ed862 description "Oficial periodic report: Bollettino_Vulcani_Campani_2015_02.pdf" assertion.

• first
• previous
• next