Monitoring pelagic habitat health contributes to assess and plan fishing management measures.

The IEO will evaluate environmental status of pelagic habitat

Researchers from the Balearic Oceanographic Centre of the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) will develop maritime biodiversity indicators of the pelagic habitat around the Balearic Islands, with special attention to the areas included in the Natura 2000 Network.

These indicators will make it possible to implement a monitoring system of the health status of marine ecosystems and the development of a display that provides information on the biodiversity of the pelagic habitats of the study areas.

Natura 2000 Network is one of the main conservation instruments of the European Union, created with the aim of ensuring the long-term survival of the most valuable habitats and species on the continent and its seas. The Balearic Islands have 159 spaces in this Network, which occupy 221,909 hectares and account for 23 per cent of its territory.

The inclusion in 2017 of the water column, or pelagic habitat, as well as certain criteria that must be considered to estimate its quality, evidenced the existence of a large methodological gap and basic knowledge regarding this type of habitat. Proof of this is that, at the moment, there is no consensus regarding the definition of Good Environmental Status for these ecosystems.

The knowledge of the hydrographic characteristics and the dynamics of the water masses of the pelagic habitat is essential to understand the processes that regulate marine biodiversity and the populations of the living resources exploited. It is, therefore, to generate knowledge that helps to evaluate and plan management measures aimed at ensuring the sustainability of marine ecosystems and their living resources.

One of the conditions that the pelagic habitat must satisfy to meet the Good Environmental Status criteria must be that all species present under normal environmental conditions must be able to find their necessary habitat to complete their life cycle.

Another condition that must be met is precisely that the physical dynamics of the ocean and, therefore, the movement of fauna and water bodies are not obstructed.

"The IEO has long time series of data, both marine organisms and hydrographic variables (nutrients and dissolved oxygen, for example), which are a very valuable tool when carrying out monitoring of marine biodiversity indicators and changes in water masses. These data can be used to calculate ecological indicators and threshold values ​​that will allow us to define the Good Environmental Status of a pelagic habitat and know the main impacts to which its biodiversity is subject," says Álvarez, principal investigator of the project.

The Diverpel project (Diversity in the pelagic habitat: development of new indicators to respond to the new requirements to define the Good Environmental Status proposed in the Marine Strategies Framework Directive) will be carried out during 2019 and has the support of the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition through the Pleamar Program of the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF).

The final objective of this initiative is to develop biodiversity indicators of the pelagic habitat around the Balearic Islands, with special attention to biodiversity in Natura 2000 Network.

[email protected]
www.seafood.media

Address:	Corazón de María nº 8
City:	Madrid
State/ZIP:	Madri (28002)
Country:	Spain
Phone:	+34 915 974 443
Fax:	+34 915 974 770
E-Mail:	[email protected]
More about:

Print