The HELCOM Initial Holistic Assessment of Ecosystem Health of the Baltic Sea 2003-2007

1. The HELCOM Initial Holistic Assessment of Ecosystem Health of the Baltic Sea 2003-2007 Jesper H. Andersen, DHI, Denmark EEA Eionet Marine Workshop 25 October 2010 EEA, Copenhagen, Denmark

2. HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan • Adopted in the 2007 Krakow Ministerial Meeting • Ecosystem-based approach to management of human activities • Ecological objectives • Measures and actions for: • Eutrophication • Hazardous substances • Maritime activities • Biodiversity and nature conservation • National Implementation Programmes in 2010

3. HELCOM monitoring and assessment strategy

4. Based on data from HELCOM’s coordinated monitoring programmes • Use of indicator-based assessment tools

5. Initial Holistic Assessment of the Ecosystem Health of the Baltic Sea 2003-2007 Overview of the ecosystem health of the Baltic Sea in 2003-2007 Status, anthropogenic pressures and economic analysis Baseline for assessing the effectiveness of the implementation of the measures of the HELCOM BSAP – How far are we from reaching good environmental / ecological status? Contribution to the EU MSFD implementation

6. Ecosystem health status of the entire sea was impaired in 2003-2007 • Based on biological and chemical status indicators • In all sub-basins the status was classified as being impaired, i.e. moderate, poor or bad • The poor/bad status of the Baltic Sea Proper is due to eutrophication, contamination with hazardous substances and decline of biodiversity • Gulf of Bothnia is the sub-basin with the least impaired status • The map of ’ecosystem health’ above uses HOLAS: • The HELCOM Holistic Ecosystem Health Assessment Tool (HOLAS) – a merger of HEAT, BEAT and CHASE taking key BSAP, WFD and MSFD principles into account – in principle equivalent to ’GES’ sensu MSFD

7. What are the pressures on the marine environment? • Analysis of anthropogenic pressures : 52 data layers, here just a few examples... • A single activity may result in many pressures Airborne nitrogen deposition Bottom trawling Shipping intensity Underwater noise

8. Baltic Sea Pressure IndexSpatial distribution of the sum of human-induce pressures • For each 5x5 km square of the sea, pressures taking place in that area were summed up • Human activities put a pressure on the entire sea area with the least pressure in the northern areas and the most in the eastern, southeastern and southern areas • The BSPI methodology: • The Baltic Sea Pressure Index is based on Halpern et al. (2008)

9. Secchi (m) Chlorophyll a (µg L-1) What is the status? – Eutrophication • The map above: • The HELCOM Eutrophication Assessment Tool (HEAT) – a modernised version of OSPAR COMP as well as based on WFD principles

10. Eutrophication: Trends of the nutrient inputs • During 1995-2006, there was no obvious reduction of nitrogen and phosphorus inputs due to measures taken (some data lacking for 2007/08) • The BSAP targets have not been permanently reached for either nutrient and there are differences in the performance of the countries • Further work will be needed especially if climate change increases the loads

11. Costs and benefits of reaching the BSAP targets for eutrophication

12. What is the status?– Hazardous substances • The example above: • Mean productivity (green line) vs. egg lipid concentrations of DDE (red) and PCBs (blue) of the white-tailed sea eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) on the Swedish Baltic Sea coast from 1965–2005 (Helander et al. 2002, 2008). • The HELCOM Chemical Status Assessment Tool (CHASE).

13. What is the status?– Biodiversity and nature conservation Biodiversity status Bottom trawling intensity • The map above: • The HELCOM Biodiversity Status Assessment Tool (BEAT) – based on HEAT as well as BSAP and Habitats Directive principles • Follow-up actions: • Continue dialogue between the fisheries and environment sectors – HELCOM’s Fisheries and Environment Forum • Assess if unsustainable fishing practices are taking place in protected areas

14. Designation of Baltic Marine Protected Ares • We have reached the 10 % target for the regional network of marine protected areas set by the UN CBD COP7 • ... but the network is not yet ecologically coherent and well-managed • Science-based designation principles taking coherence into account are now being used (MARXAN)

15. Take home messages • The Baltic Sea is in a bad shape! • Assessments have moved from simple trend assessments and SoE assessments to complex indicator-based status assessments • We have developed and applied the following indicator-based tools: • HEAT (eutrophication) • CHASE (hazardoussubstances) HOLAS • BEAT (biodiversity) (’ecosystemhealth’) • BSPI (cumulativepressureindex) and BSII (not showntoday) • Future MPA arelikely to bedesignatedon the basis of scientificprinciples (MARXAN)

16. Looking into the future Review of environmental targets for eutrophication, and as a follow-up also a review of nutrient reduction targets Further development of indicators and targets (especially biodiversity and hazardous substances) Assessment of the threat status of species and biotopes: updating and creating Red Lists Revision of monitoring programmes There is no such thing as a perfect assessment tool! Further development of the tool box will take place via the HARMONY project (a North Sea/Kattegat activity feeding back to both MSFD and BSAP implementation)

17. Thank you for your attention!Please study the HELCOM assessments as well as the tool box