European marine biodiversity monitoring networks: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats

By 2020 EU Member States are obliged to demonstrate achievement of Good Environmental Status (GES) for their marine waters to fulfill the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). By the end of 2015, through the Regional Seas Conventions, each EU Member States was required to develop a marine strategy for their waters, together with other countries within the same marine region or sub-region. Coherent monitoring programs, submitted in 2014, form a key component of this strategy, which then aimed to lead to a Program of Measures (submitted in 2015). The DEVOTES FP7 project has produced and interrogated a catalogue of EU marine monitoring related to MSFD descriptors 1 (biological diversity), 2 (non-indigenous species), 4 (food webs) and 6 (seafloor integrity). This details each monitoring activity at the regional and sub-regional level for these descriptors, as well as 11 biodiversity components, 22 habitats and the 37 anthropogenic pressures addressed. The metadata collated were subject to a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis of/to existing monitoring networks across Europe.

MATEUS PATRICIO Joana;  LITTLE Sally;  MAZIK Krysia;  PAPADOPOULOU Nadia;  SMITH Chris;  TEIXEIRA Heliana;  HOFFMANN Helene;  UYARRA María C.;  SOLAUN Oihana;  ZENETOS Argyro;  KABOGLU Gokhan;  KRYVENKO Olga;  CHURILOVA Tanya;  MONCHEVA Snejana;  BUCAS Martynas;  BORJA Angel;  HOEPFFNER Nicolas;  ELLIOTT Mike; 

2018-02-15

Frontiers Media S.A.

JRC102403

2296-7745,   

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2016.00161/full,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC102403,   

10.3389/fmars.2016.00161,