European Broad-Scale Seabed Habitat Maps Support Implementation of Ecosystem-Based Management

Abstract

We have analyzed the development of "Broad-Scale Seabed Habitat Maps" (BSHM) and their potential use in a European context with regard to the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) implementation, MPA designation and network assessment as well as other applications of BSHMs. The analyses are anchored in BSHMs developed by a series of interlinked EU projects (e.g. UKSeaMap, BALANCE, MESH, Mesh Atlantic, EUSeaMap 2012, and EUSeaMap 2016) and all maps are based on environmental data. Some EU Member States have used BSHMs as part of their MSFD Initial Assessments published in 2012. However, we conclude that BSHMs are a prerequisite for another key MSFD activity, i.e. mapping of potentially cumulative effects of multiple human stressors. Further, BSHMs seem to play a growing role with regard to evidence-based assessments of MPAs. With the upcoming second round of MSFD Initial Assessments due in 2018, including assessment of potentially cumulative pressures, there seems to be an increasing need for more BSHMs nationally, regionally and on a European scale.

A Methodology and Tool for Mapping the Risk of Cumulative Effects on Benthic Habitats

“…The 2017 EuSeaMap European benthic habitat map (Populus et al, 2017) formed the basis of the data used. This Broad-scale Seabed Habitat Map (BSHM) is used as part of the implementation of the MSFD and, in some European countries, for the creation and evaluation of the marine protected area network (Andersen et al, 2018).…”

Historical human activities reshape evolutionary trajectories across both native and introduced ranges

“…Europe had persistent coastal refugia during the last glacial maximum 18,000 years BP, and both species have distinct mitochondrial lineages consistent with persistence in multiple refugia (Einfeldt & Addison, 2015; Einfeldt et al., 2014; Virgilio, Fauvelot, Costantini, Abbiati, & Backeljau, 2009). Throughout the Holocene, soft‐sediment habitat was fragmented along coastlines by regions of coarse sediment and rocky substrata, with major discontinuities between the British Isles and continental Europe (Andersen et al., 2018). Trace fossils suggest that both species were present on the continental coast of the North Sea and British Isles during this time (Allen & Haslett, 2002; Buller & McManus, 1972; Streif, 1972).…”

What’s hot and what’s not: Making sense of biodiversity ‘hotspots’

“…The superorganism view is implicit in maps with hard edges between adjacent habitats and is widely applied to inform biodiversity conservation and monitoring strategies (e.g. EUNIS; Andersen et al., 2018; Coltman et al., 2008), although such classifications can perform poorly when related to changes in community composition (Cooper et al., 2019). This highlights a current and critical disconnect between how assemblages are structured and how conservation is applied.…”

“…To address these evidence needs, we draw together data from across the UK Exclusive Economic Zone (UK EEZ), and across many different habitats (e.g. Andersen et al., 2018; Coltman et al., 2008; Cooper et al., 2019), where extensive spatial and temporal observations exist for benthic biota and prevailing environmental conditions. We focus on two large faunal datasets and observations between 1985 and 2016 where complementary covariate data exist: the first was compiled for a UK benthic macrofaunal distribution study (henceforth 'BM data'; Cooper & Barry, 2017) containing count data for 1,964 species with 23,153 multi‐species observations (i.e.…”