Tales from a thousand and one ways to integrate marine ecosystem components when assessing the environmental status

Abstract

Assessing the environmental status of marine ecosystems is useful when communicating key messages to policymakers or the society, reducing the complex information of the multiple ecosystem and biodiversity components and their important spatial and temporal variability into manageable units. Taking into account the ecosystem components to be addressed (e.g., biological, chemical, physical), the numerous biodiversity elements to be assessed (e.g., from microbes to sea mammals), the different indicators needed to be studied (e.g., in Europe, 56 indicators of status have been selected), and the different assessment scales to be undertaken (e.g., from local to regional sea scale), some criteria to define spatial scales and some guidance on aggregating and integrating information is needed. We have reviewed, from ecological and management perspectives, the approaches for aggregating and integrating currently available for marine status assessment in Europe and other regions of the world. Advantages and shortcomings of the different alternatives are highlighted. We provide some guidance on the steps toward defining rules for aggregation and integration of information at multiple levels of ecosystem organization, providing recommendations on when using specific rules in the assessment. A main conclusion is that any integration principle used should be ecologically-relevant, transparent and well documented, in order to make it comparable across different geographic regions.

On the Use of Maps and Models in Conservation and Resource Management (Warning: Results May Vary)

“…In addition, it is not fully understood how the combination of individual components of data quality (e.g., positional accuracy, thematic accuracy) can be translated into one overall measure of quality. Perhaps it cannot, but different approaches exist in other fields to combine multiple metrics (e.g., Borja et al, 2014) that could likely be adapted to combine different components of data quality. One of the current problems is transparency: it has been argued that readily available data could affect the accuracy of conservation planning outcomes (Rondinini et al, 2006) by introducing uncertainty and subjectivity in the process (Larsen and Rahbek, 2003).…”

“…One of the main solutions that has been discussed widely in the ecological literature is to select variables with an ecological meaning for the studied area, species or habitat (Howell, 2010;Borja et al, 2014;Lecours et al, , 2016a. However, this makes comparability of maps in a broader context difficult; as previously discussed, there is no universal approach and variable selection is site-and case-specific (Pitcher et al, 2012).…”

Approaches for integrated assessment of ecological and eutrophication status of surface waters in Nordic Countries

“…When it comes to aggregation and integration of indicators within BQEs/QEs, several principles and methods are in use (Borja et al 2014). In essence, the methods applied include: (1) OO-AO, (2) TO-AO, also called the two outall-out principle, (3) averaging (arithmetic or weighted mean), (4) scoring or decision tree approaches, (5) probabilistic methods, and (6) multi-metric or multivariate methods (please see Borja et al 2014 for details).…”

“…In contrast, integration of indicators within BQEs/QEs uses methods from simple averages to complex aggregations, with substantial variation (e.g. Borja et al 2014). The absence of a harmonised approach complicates comparisons between different groups of indicators, not only within water bodies but also across water bodies and water categories.…”

Implementing the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive: Scientific challenges and opportunities

“…Thus, another important challenge is how to best aggregate the multiple indicators, descriptors and spatialtemporal scales (Borja et al, 2014) and how to assess the environmental status using an integrated tool . Harmonizing such a tool across the European regional seas will be a pivotal advance in the near future for the timely implementation of the MSFD.…”