A pressure to pelagic habitats
New science for policy report reveals that non-indigenous species (NIS) are one of the indicators in the assessment of the environmental status of pelagic habitats for the Marine Strategy Framework Directive.
JRC researchers, Member States national experts and representatives of the Regional Sea Conventions discussed the assessment of pelagic habitats and the relevance of different indicators across spatial scales.
NIS represent a pressure in many subdivisions of the Mediterranean Sea, in the Black and Baltic Seas, and NIS-based indicators well depict ecological changes in pelagic habitats. Operational indicators in the Black Sea include “Mnemiopsis leidyi biomass” which is currently discussed as candidate indicator for testing in the Adriatic Sea. In the Baltic Sea, the biomass of Cercopagis pengoi is identified as complementary indicator to M. leidyi.
For more information: http://dx.doi.org/10.2760/081368
Picture: Sea walnut (Mnemiopsis leidyi) © Steven G. Johnson 2008. CC BY-SA 3.0