1. Biodiversity monitoring for the MSFD: Requirements and Options
Nikolaos ZAMPOUKAS
European Commission - DG JRC
Institute for Environment & Sustainability
Water Resources Unit

2. Contents of the presentation
Legislative background
Short overview of existing EU and RCSs approaches
Concepts and examples of integrated monitoring
Large scale and less applied monitoring approaches

3. What is monitoring?
The systematic measurement of biotic and abiotic parameters of the marine environment, with predefined spatial and temporal schedule, in order to produce datasets that can be used for application of assessment methods and derive credible conclusions on whether the desired state is achieved or not for the marine area concerned as well as for the trend of the change

4. What is included in monitoring?
Choice of the parameters to measure
Location of sampling sites
Periodicity of sampling
Processing of the samples
Measurement of the parameter value
Calculation of metrics and classification not included (but related) – several open issues expected from IA

5. In a nutshell….
Monitoring should provide the data to allow assessment methods to classify a marine area as reaching or failing to reach the desired status

6. What monitoring is needed for the MSFD?
“…coordinated monitoring programmes should be established and implemented by 15 July 2014 in order to assess the environmental status of marine waters. Such programmes should include the indicative lists of characteristics, pressures and impacts of the Directive’s Annex III, follow the specifications of Annex V and be able to assess the achievement of environmental targets that should be established in accordance with Article 10 by 15 July 2012.”

7. Annex III biodiversity related characteristics
Phytoplankton & zooplankton (species composition)
Angiosperms, macroalgae & zoobenthos (biomass & species composition)
Fish (abundance, distribution age / size structure)
Reptiles, seabirds, marine mammals & other protected species (range, population dynamics, status)
Genetically distinct forms of native species (occurrence, distribution, abundance)
Introduction of non-indigenous species (occurrence, distribution, abundance, transolcations)
Habitats (predominant, special, protected and endangered)

8. What monitoring is needed for the MSFD?
COM DEC; 2010/477/EU lists 14 criteria and 26 indicators to assess GES for descriptors 1, 2, 4 & 6 Ideally, data on Annex III parameters should allow for the calculation of the 26 indicators related to these 4 Descriptors

9. Marine biodiversity related monitoring also needed for:
the Water Framework Directive (WFD) the Habitats Directive (HD) the Birds Directive (BD) the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) the Regional Seas Conventions (RSCs)

10. D1: Biodiversity 1.1.1: Species distributional range
1.1.2: Species distribution pattern
1.1.3: Area covered by the species
1.2.1: Population abundance and/or biomass
1.4.1: Distributional range of habitat
1.4.2: Distributional pattern of habitat
1.5.1: Habitat area
1.6.3: Physical, hydrological and chemical conditions
1.7.1: Composition and relative proportions of ecosystem components
Some habitats, species, populations and communities should already be monitored for the HD, the BD and the WFD

11. NO MONITORING REQUIREMENT PREVIOUS TO THE MSFD
D1: Biodiversity
1.3.1: Population demographic characteristics (e.g. body size or age class structure, sex ratio, fecundity rates, survival/mortality rates)
Monitoring required for the CFP-DCF for some fish and shellfish
1.3.2: Population genetic structure
1.5.2: Habitat volume
1.6.1: Condition of typical species and communities
NO MONITORING REQUIREMENT PREVIOUS TO THE MSFD

12. D2: Alien species
2.1.1: Trends in abundance, temporal occurrence and spatial distribution
NO MONITORING REQUIREMENT PREVIOUS TO THE MSFD
SOME EXISTING DATABASES
2.2.1: Ratio between alien and native species
2.2.2: Impacts of alien species
HELCOM: Biopollution Level -only Baltic, needs further development.

13. D4: Food Webs
4.1.1: Performance of key predator species using their production per unit biomass (productivity)
OSPAR EcoQO: pup production of grey seals
4.2.1 Large fish (by weight)
OSPAR EcoQO: % of fish by weight greater than 40cm in length
4.3.1: Abundance trends of functionally important selected groups/species
WFD coastal methods for phytoplankton and macrobenthos

14. WFD monitoring for zoobenthos and macrophytes
D6: Sea floor integrity
6.1.1 Type, abundance, biomass and areal extent of relevant biogenic substrate Presence of particularly sensitive and/or tolerant species Multi-metric indexes assessing benthic community condition and functionality, such as species diversity and richness, proportion of opportunistic to sensitive species
WFD monitoring for zoobenthos and macrophytes

15. NO MONITORING REQUIREMENT PREVIOUS TO THE MSFD
D6: Sea floor integrity
6.1.2 Extent of the seabed significantly affected by human activities Proportion of biomass or number of individuals in the macrobenthos above some specified length/size Parameters describing the characteristics (shape, slope and intercept) of the size spectrum of the benthic community
NO MONITORING REQUIREMENT PREVIOUS TO THE MSFD

16. Differences in spatial requirements
WFD: coastal waters (up to 1 nm) HD & BD: where listed species and habitats occur CFP: where fish stocks and fishing activities take place MSFD: all marine waters under the sovereignty and jurisdiction of Member States (including coastal, territorial waters, EEZ and, in some cases, continental shelf)

17. Considerations of frequency
WFD: 3 years for macrobenthos HD: at least every 6 years BD: at least every 3 years CFP: yearly or every 3 years MSFD: not defined but the MSFD cycle has a 6 years periodicity Frequency should be parameter specific

18. Also importantly… not all indicators operational
monitoring requirements not always clear

19. What is integrated monitoring?
A monitoring programme providing data:
For different MSFD descriptors and indicators
For different pieces of legislation
For more than one Member State
Collected in a comparable way
Cost efficiency

20. Integration across descriptors & indicators
E.g. data on fish stocks could also be used for biodiversity, alien species and food chain descriptors & data on benthic flora both for biodiversity and eutrophication

21. Integration across pieces of legislation
Existing marine monitoring programmes to be amended to also cover MSFD requirements

22. Integration across Member States
What about joint cruises and use of same instrumentation? Joint research projects Joint development of assessment methods (e.g. OSPAR EcoQOs)

23. Collection of data in a comparable way
Some agreed methodologies exist but not for all indicators and marine regions Mostly for coastal waters
Few existing ISO & CEN standards:
phytoplankton
hard-substrate benthic communities

24. Large scale and other less applied monitoring approaches
Continuous Plankton Recorder
Underwater video & imagery
Underwater acoustics
Autonomous underwater vehicles and gliders
Ships of opportunity

25. Continuous Plankton Recorder
Plankton sampling instrument designed to be towed from ships at approximately 10 m
Water passes through the CPR and plankton is filtered onto a slow-moving band of silk

26. Continuous Plankton Recorder
CPR can sample larger areas than other phytoplankton and zooplankton devices such as bottles and nets
Data on biomass that are needed for many indicators can easily be taken while taxonomic identification needed for other indicators needs the same skills and human power as with any other sampling method
CPR has also been used to monitor microlitter in the water column. However the CPR samples at approximately 10m depth and so will not sample floating debris

27. Underwater video & imagery
Information on:
structure of the sea-bed
composition and abundance of macroscopic benthic and pelagic biota
non-living items, such as litter

28. Underwater acoustics Sonars for:
detection of animal and plant populations
information on their abundance, size, behavior and distribution
habitat mapping (depth, bottom roughness and hardness reflecting differences in sub-stratum types)
3D images possible
Need for validation with other devices (e.g. cameras)
Source:

29. Underwater acoustics
Recording of sounds produced by marine animals (mainly mammals) could possibly provide info on their population abundance, their movements and location of their habitats. A related project is:
Photograph by Brian J. Skerry- national geographic

30. Autonomous underwater vehicles
AUVs are free-swimming torpedo-shaped devices remotely operated from the surface, most often powered by rechargeable batteries and/or buoyancy-based techniques (gliders)
Can cover large distance (ca. 10 miles) at various depths to provide a 3D view of the water column

31. Autonomous underwater vehicles
Physical and bio-optical instruments:
Nutrients
Contaminants
Phytoplankton biomass
Temperature
Oxygen
Conductivity
Video-cameras:
Organisms (mostly pelagic)
Debris
Detectors of passive acoustic signals:
Mammals

32. Ships of opportunity
Use of volunteer ferries, cruise ships and merchant vessels to gather oceanographic data
Various instrumentations to collect data related to physical, chemical and biological characteristics

33. In conclusion Marine monitoring:
is needed for several pieces of EU and other legislation - MSFD requires some additional one
should be integrated in order to also be cost effective
could be facilitated by large scale approaches

34. Thank you for your attention