HELCOM as the coordinating body of Baltic Sea wide monitoring by core indicators

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1 HELCOM as the coordinating body of Baltic Sea wide monitoring by core indicators Project Manager Baltic Sea Day Monitoring session St Petersburg, Russia 1

2 The Challenge we measure the concentration of heavy metals in sediment at random stations we measure the concentration of heavy metals in blue mussel tissue 2

3 The Solution = Coordinated monitoring Commonly agreed monitoring proceedures Comparable environmental data Assessments based on coordinated monitoring is stronger, a benefit for all invoved parties Possibility for cost effective shared monitoring effort 3

4 HELCOM The Convention 1974: Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area (Helsinki Convention) 1992: revised Convention Helsinki Commission is the governing body 10 Contracting Parties: Denmark Estonia European Community Finland Germany Latvia Lithuania Poland Russia Sweden Observers: Belarus Ukraine Various organisations HELCOM Secretariat assists and facilitates 4

5 Monitor to reach a goal The HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP) has the target to reach Good Environmental Status (GES) of the Baltic Sea by 2021 through an ecosystem based management approach Adopted at ministerial level in 2007 Segments Eutrophication Hazardous substances Biodiversity and nature protection Maritime Activities 5

6 HELCOM Monitoring and Assessment Strategy HELCOM has a long history of coordinated monitoring e.g.; 1970s - HELCOM first started coordinating monitoring and assessment activities monitoring of physical, chemical and biological variables of the open sea monitoring of radioactive substances Summarized main objectives of the revised HELCOM Monitoring and Assessment Strategy adopted in 2013; a) create a follow-up system for visions, goals and objectives; b) link the quality of the environment to its management; c) facilitate the implementation of the ecosystem approach; d) link data and information on pressures from land, the atmosphere, coastal areas and the open sea to the impacts on the marine environment; e) describe the system for coordination of monitoring activities; f) set out the structure and time frame for the production of region-specific assessments (thematic- and holistic assessments, indicator reports etc.); g) enable raising awareness of the general public; h) design a system for producing targeted assessment products for region-specific management purposes by also making use of data and information produced by Contracting Parties for other fora. Full content available through: > Action Areas > Monitoring and Assessment 6

7 HELCOM Monitoring and Assessment Strategy A couple of points from the strategy; Contracting States ensure that needed resources are available nationally, e.g., ships, laboratories, personnel, data management and analysis capacities and expertise, and make national commitments to implement this Strategy. The national monitoring is coordinated within and between Contracting States in order to use resources in an efficient way. Shared monitoring stations and activities, information and data are steps towards this direction. The HELCOM Joint Coordinated Monitoring system provides added value to the HELCOM Contracting Parties by creating a capability that is greater than the sum of national monitoring activities. The HELCOM monitoring system provides a Baltic-wide pool of data, which the Contracting Parties can use to enhance and improve their national programmes and assessment products 7

8 HELCOM Monitoring and Assessment Strategy Holistic Assessments - periodical - using assessment tools Thematic Assessments - periodical - using assessment tools Hazardous substances Biodiversity Eutrophication Pressures Core indicators - updated regularly - measure distance to GES hydrography, specific species trends, specific substance output trends etc. Supplementary Indicators & Supporting parameters - Updated as needed - Linked to specific core indicators 8

9 HELCOM on-going monitoring related projects 9

10 Revision of the HELCOM Monitoring Programmes MORE Project running: Objectives develop guidelines for a scientifically sound, well-coordinated, optimised and cost-effective joint HELCOM monitoring programme; Identify gaps in the current programmes based on the outcome of the aforementioned HELCOM projects and the requirements of the EU Directives; Summarize and list the required parameters, processes and products; Define the parameters as well as their spatial and temporal observation needs, making use where possible of previous studies; Prepare revised guidelines for a joint monitoring programme Outcomes Revision of HELCOM Monitoring and Assessment Strategy Monitoring Overview and MORE Map Service HELCOM on-line Monitoring Manual Details available thorugh: > HELCOM at work > Projects > MORE 10

11 MORE 11

12 Operationalization of HELCOM core indicators Project running: mid-2013 to mid-2015 Hazardous substances and biodiversity core indicators Core indicator concepts to be further developed, development of GES, dataarrangements for monitoring to be established Task Managers in Lead or Assisting work mainly thorugh correspondance 12

13 HELCOM core indicators Commonly agreed indicators among HELCOM CPs; Science based; Measure distance to GES; Cover the whole Baltic Sea, when ecologically relevant; Covers in part of fully the requirements of a BSAP Objective and/or an EU MSFD criteria; Core indicator reports published online, general structure; 1. Key message general audience 2. Monitoring and Assessment details expert audience 3. Data used in the indicator expert audience 13

14 HELCOM core indicators measure distance to Good Environmental Status (GES) GES - sustainable use of the marine environment Sub-GES - unsustainable use of the marine environment 14

15 Biodiversity Core indicators 1. Population growth rate, abundance and distribution of marine mammals 2. Pregnancy rates of the marine mammals 3. Nutritional status of seals 4. White-tailed eagle productivity 5. Abundance of waterbirds in the wintering season 6. Abundance of waterbirds in the breeding season 7. Abundance of key fish species 8. Abundance of fish key functional groups 9. Proportion of large fish in the community 10. Abundance of sea trout spawners and parr 11. Abundance of salmon spawners and smolt 12. Zooplankton mean size and total abundance 13. State of the soft-bottom macrofauna communities 14. Population structure of long-lived macrozoobenthic species 15. Trends in arrival of new non-indigenous species 16. Red-listed benthic biotopes 15

16 Biodiversity 1. Number of waterbirds being oiled annually 2. Lower depth distribution limit of macrophyte species 3. Distribution and pattern of benthic biotopes 4. Extent of benthic biotopes Pre-Core Indicators Candidate Indicators 1. Ratio of diatoms and biomass dinoflagellates 11. Cyanobacteria biomass 2. Ratio of autotrophic and index heterotrophic organisms 12. Spring bloom index 3. Frequency and intensity of 13. Concentration of silica and cyanobacterial blooms chlorophyll a 4. Seasonal succession of 14. Distribution of offshore fish functional phytoplankton populations and key groups communities 5. Phytoplankton diversity 15. Distribution of seabirds 6. Zooplankton species 16. Mean maximum length diversity (MML) of the fish 7. Biomass of copepods community (absolute and relative) 17. Biomass ratio of 8. Biomass of microphagous mesozooplankton (absolute opportunistic and perennial macroalgae and relative) 18. Cumulative coverage (of 9. Zooplankton-phytoplankton macrophytes) biomass ratio 19. Status of hard-bottom 10. Proportion of cyanobacteria in summer phytoplankton community 16

17 Hazardous Substance Core indicators 1. Polybrominated biphenyl ethers (PBDE): BDE-28, 47, 99,100, 153 and Hexabromocyclodocecane (HBCDD) 3. Perfluorooctane sulphonate (PFOS) 4. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) and dioxins and furans: CB-28, 52, 101, 118, 138, 153 and 180: WHO-TEQ of dioxins, furans dl-pcbs 5. Polyaromatic hydrocarbons and their metabolites: US EPA 16 PAHs / selected metabolites 6. Metals (lead, cadmium and mercury) 7. Radioactive substances: Caesium-137 in fish and surface waters 8. Tributyltin (TBT) and imposex Lena Avellan 17

18 Hazardous substances Pre-Core Indicators 1. Pharmaceuticals: Diclofenac, EEA2 (+E1, E2, E3 + in vitro yeast essay) 2. Lysosomal Membrane Stability a toxic stress indicator 3. Fish Disease Index a fish stress indicator 4. Micronucleus test a genotoxicity indicator 5. Reproductive disorders: Malformed eelpout and amphipod embryos Candidate Indicators 1. PCB and dioxins for safe fish to eat 2. Alkylphenols (nonylphenol and octylphenol) 3. Vitellogenin induction 4. Acetylcholin-esterase inhibition 5. EROD/CYP1A (Ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase) induction Lena Avellan 18

19 Pressures Core Indicators 1. Number of drowned mammals and waterbirds in fishing gears Pre-Core Indicators 1. Cumulative impact on benthic habitats Candidate Indicators 1. Actual input of nitrogen and phosphorous to the basins 2. Follow-up report on inputs reduction requirements for countries 3. Waterborne inputs organic matter 4. Fishing effort by specific gears 5. Integrated status of contaminants in fish species 6. Fishing mortality in the fish stocks 7. Occurrence, origin and extent of significant acute pollution events 8. Beach litter 9. Litter on the seafloor 10. Microplastics in the watercolumn 11. Low and mid frequency impulsive sounds 12. Ambient noise 19

20 Making HELCOM eutrophication assessments operational EUTRO-OPER Project runs: Jan 2014 Dec 2015 Aims toward a streamlined, cost-efficient and high-quality eutrophication assessment WP1: Defining assessment methods WP2: Operationalizing the assessment system WP3: Development work 20

21 EUTRO-OPER eutrophication core indicators Water transparency (Secchi depth) Concentrations of dissolved inorganic nitrogen Concentrations of dissolved inorganic phosphorus Concentrations of chlorophyll a Oxygen concentration 21

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23 Baltic Sea Pilot Project: Testing new concepts for integrated environmental monitoring of the Baltic Sea BALSAM Project runs: supports HELCOM work on coordinated monitoring of the Baltic and the MSFD monitoring work (Art 11) of EU Member States Some of the outcomes: Builds capacity for coordinated monitoring of marine mammals, birds and benthic biotopes Decision support tool for non-indigenous species monitoring in ports Improvement of sharing and coordinating use of research vessels Gap-analysis of coordinated monitoring Metsähallitus 23

24 BALSAM Work Packages WP1: WP2: WP3: WP4: WP5: WP6: Project Coordination and cooperation for integrated monitoring (lead HELCOM Secretariat) Promoting resource-efficiency in national monitoring strategies (lead HELCOM Secretariat) Regional coordination of marine mammals and seabirds (lead Århus University) Non-indigenous species multi-disciplinary monitoring schemes to gain synergies for ballast water risk-management and environmental monitoring (lead HELCOM Secretariat) Tools for optimizing coordinated international use of research vessels for monitoring activities (lead Tallin University of Technology) A common standard for mapping and monitoring of Baltic Sea benthic biotopes and habitats, and format for data exchange (lead Baltic Environmental Forum Latvia) 24

25 Next steps for HELCOM coordinated monitoring Developing HELCOM - Map and Data services - Monitoring Manual Strengthening the coordinated monitoring Hazardous substances Biodiversity Eutrophication Pressures hydrography, specific species trends, specific substance output trends etc. 25

26 Coordinated monitoring provides the basis for coordinated measures 26

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