Benthic monitoring in Finland Henrik Nygrd , Marine Research - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Benthic monitoring in Finland Henrik Nygård , Marine Research Institute, Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), HELCOM IN Benthic habitat monitoring meeting, 16-17.2.2016, Tallinn

Introduction New national marine monitoring program (2015) covering biodiversity, alien species, commercial fish, eutrophication, hydrography, hazardous substances (in environment and in food), litter, energy (including noise) Benthic sub-program of the biodiversity monitoring program: ● Open sea benthos monitoring ● Coastal benthos monitoring ● Monitoring of macrophytes and blue mussel habitats ● Physical loss and disturbance of seafloor 2

Open sea benthos monitoring ● Performed by Finnish Environment Institute ● Yearly sampling of soft bottoms (RV Aranda, COMBINE 2-cruise ● 30-40 stations yearly ● Parameters: species composition, abundance, biomass and size ● Methodology following the Combine manual (Van Veen grab) ● Monitoring started 1964 3

Coastal benthos monitoring ● Monitoring coordinated by Finnish Environment Institute, performed by regional environment centres (ELY- keskus) ● Soft bottoms, methodology based on standards (Ekman or Van Veen grab) ● Sampling yearly, 3 or 6 year rotation ● Parameters: species composition, abundance, size ● Complemented by statutory monitoring 4

Monitoring of macrophytes and blue mussel habitats ● Monitoring coordinated by Finnish Environment Institute, performed by regional environment centres (ELY-keskus) ● Dive transects ● Parameters: community composition, coverage, depth distribution ● 1-3 year rotation 5

Physical loss and disturbance of seafloor ● New program (no results yet) ● Collecting information on and quantifying pressures on the seafloor ● Dredging, dumping of dredged material etc. 6