Description: Benthic habitat condition assessments are a requirement under various environmental directives. The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD),for example, challenges member states in a European sea region to perform comparable assessments of good environmental status and improve coherence of their monitoring programmes by 2020. Currently, North Sea countries operate independent monitoring programmes using nationally defined assessment areas. Lack of an agreed OSPAR or EU scale monitoring method and programme has been identified as a priority science need. This paper proposes a method for the development of a coherent and efficient spatial sampling design for benthic habitats on regional level and gives advice on optimal monitoring effort to get more accurate assessments. We use ecologically relevant assessment areas (strata) across national borders and test spatial sample allocation methods.

Description: The sustainable development of the marine environment has resulted in the introduction of man-made structures (MMS) in the North Sea. These structures range from oil and gas platforms, buoys, wrecks to wind turbines, offering additional artificial habitat over predominantly soft-sediment areas. The expected effects from MMS in shallow shelf seas will modify benthic communities over various spatial and temporal scales with repercussions for overall ecosystem functioning. Research on large offshore structures have identified a suite of unique effects ranging from biodiversity changes with repercussions on local ecosystem functioning to the provision of habitat for fouling communities, acting as stepping stones and many other ecological modifications. Consequently, MMS might induce structural, functional and process-driven changes, which are different from those expected in natural soft bottom benthic systems. This study considers soft-sediment and introduced hard-substrate epifouling communities. The combination of these systems provides a unique ecological opportunity to ascertain biodiversity changes triggered by loss and gain of species provided by the addition of MMS. To date, our current understanding of how ecological functioning might be modified by the addition of these MMSs is still in its infancy. Our current analysis aimed at evaluating functional changes with a combination of biological traits analysis and energy flow changes calculated via modelled secondary production. Further, our study compared the different types of introduced MMS among the natural soft sediment communities, disentangling how the ecological functioning of the macrobenthos may be altered by the introduction of these structures, which provides improved concepts for current monitoring assessments.

Description: Marine renewable energy projects (MREs) are supported by mandatory environmental monitoring programmes due to assumed environmental impacts. These programmes concentrate on the resultant effects of single industrial projects onto biological and physical components contributing to the local ecosystem structure. To date, impact assessments at the ecosystem functioning level (e.g. trophic interactions, nutrient cycling) are largely lacking. This critical knowledge gap hampers our ability to answering the “so what” question when assessing environmental impacts, i.e. whether the observed impacts are classified as good, bad or neutral, and/or acceptable or unacceptable. When assessing MREs, there is a fundamental need to focus on ecosystem functioning at relevant spatial and temporal scales to properly understand ecological impacts and its consequences. Here, we make a science-based plea for an increased investment in large scale impact assessment of MREs focused on ecosystem functioning. This presentation will cover a selection of examples from MRE monitoring programmes, where the current knowledge has limited conclusions on the “so what” question. Further, applications will demonstrate how a proposed ecosystem functioning approach at an appropriate spatial and temporal scale could advance our current assessment. These examples will illustrate the need to expand the current level of MRE monitoring beyond that of community structure and of individual industrial projects. This work will advance and strengthen collaborative MRE monitoring strategies, facilitating scientists, developers and regulators to answer the much needed “so what” question when undertaking environmental assessments, and reassuring stakeholders with high confidence over these assessments.

Description: Offshore marine renewables energy developments (MREDs), particularly in the light of extensive offshore wind farm development in shallow shelf seas, are expected to affect the structure and functioning of marine ecosystems. Several activities linked to the installation and operation of MREDs each have their differential impacts onto the ecosystem. The benthos plays key roles in the ecosystem, supporting numerous ecosystem goods and services such as long-term carbon storage and food resources for higher trophic groups (e.g. fish, birds, mammals and including humans). Development of MREDs will initiate processes which are expected to affect benthic assemblages over various, currently unknown, spatial and temporal scales. This work provides a structured overview of ecological cause-effect relationships related to MREDs, based on a set of hypothesis-driven pathways supported by literature (〉230 publications reviewed). Furthermore, this work evaluated the sensitivity of benthic causeeffect relationships to potential effects of MREDs on different spatial and temporal scales and weighted the assessment by confidence in existing knowledge and the consistency of effects among habitats. The outcomes allowed identification of knowledge gaps about ecological processes, in order to prioritize the ‘known-unknowns’ and highlight priority research areas. Our results suggest that the sensitivity of the benthos to MREDs is much higher than previously indicated, particularly where cascading effects lead to changes in ecological functioning. Filling existing knowledge gaps and understanding ecological processes and patterns occurring at low-trophic levels, including those within the benthos, are essential to maintain ecological integrity key to the ecosystem and to society even under MREDs developments.

Description: There is concern across the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) region that a consideration of vulnerable components and the wider support mechanisms underpinning benthic marine ecosystems may be lacking from the process of marine protected area (MPA) designation, management and monitoring. In this study, MPAs across six European ecoregions were assessed from a benthic ecology perspective. The study included 102 MPAs, designated by 10 countries, and focused on three aspects regarding the role of the benthos in: (i) the designation of MPAs; (ii) the management measures used in MPAs; and (iii) the monitoring and assessment of MPAs. Qualitative entries to a questionnaire based on an existing framework (EU project ‘Monitoring Evaluation of Spatially Managed Areas’, (MESMA) were collected by 19 benthic experts of the ICES Benthic Ecology Working Group. A pedigree matrix was used to apply a numerical scale (score) to these entries. The results showed clear differences in scores between ecoregions and between criteria. The designation‐phase criteria generally achieved higher scores than the implementation‐phase criteria. Poor designation‐phase scores were generally reiterated in the implementation‐phase scores, such as scores for assessment and monitoring. Over 70% of the MPA case studies were found to consider the benthos to some extent during selection and designation; however, this was not followed up with appropriate management measures and good practice during the implementation phase. Poor spatial and temporal coverage of monitoring and ineffective indicators is unlikely to pick up changes caused by management measures in the MPA. There is concern that without adequate monitoring and adaptive management frameworks, the MPAs will be compromised. Also, there could be an increased likelihood that, with regard to the benthos, they will fail to meet their conservation objectives. This assessment was successful in highlighting issues related to the representation and protection of the benthos in MPAs and where changes need to be made, such as expanding the characterization and monitoring of benthic species or habitats of interest. These issues could be attributable to an ongoing process and/or an indication that some MPAs only have ‘paper protection’.

Description: Over the last decade, the installation and operation of extensive offshore wind farms led to a substantial increase in artificial substrates in the North Sea. Man-made structures (MMS) such as wind turbines represent additional hard-substrate habitats in the areas of the North Sea that are predominantly characterized by soft sediments. Man-made structures, colonised by fouling populations, may have potential effects by additional biomass discharge from MMS on the benthic soft bottom systems. At the same time, many ecosystem goods and services of the North Sea such as long-term carbon storage and natural resources (e.g. for fish, birds, mammals and finally humans) are intimately linked to the benthic system. Benthic invertebrates form the major food source for many commercially exploited fish species and thus the production (i.e. species energy that is turned into biomass) of benthic communities is of direct relevance for the food provisioning ecosystem service. In this study, production was calculated based on species populations as a quantification of energy flow and trophic interactions. The obtained results may thus provide clear signals for status and possible responses of populations and entire ecosystems to the introduction of MMS. The analysis included different datasets from various monitoring programs of offshore wind farms (i.e. the production and biomass of fouling communities and of natural soft-bottom community) from the Southern North Sea over several years. We analysed production changes due to environmental parameters and the presence of the structures in a meta-analysis. The analysis revealed clear modifications in the upper parts of MMSs, where the highest production values and potential biomass export to soft bottoms were detected. The outcome may thus represent a first step to disentangle the potential effects of additional biomass discharge from MMS on the ecological functioning of benthic systems. Future monitoring should therefore focus on specific targeted monitoring, i.e. investigate the cause-effect relationships to understand changes in energy flow and how this might affect (positive-neutral-negative) the food provisioning in marine ecosystems.

Description: Bioturbation is one of the key mediators of biogeochemical processes in benthic habitats that can have a high contribution to seafloor functioning and benthic pelagic coupling in coastal waters. Previous studies on bioturbation were limited to point locations and extrapolations in single regions, but have not accounted for regional differences under changing environmental conditions, though there are indications that species contributions will differ across regions or with biotic and abiotic context. To capture those differences and assess global patterns and commonalities, multi-regional analyses are imperative. Here for the first time, bioturbation potential (BPc), a functional indicator of benthic community bioturbation, was estimated based on macrofauna data from four regions (i.e. German Baltic Sea, German North Sea, Belgian part of the North Sea and the Eastern English Channel). For each region and sediment type we identified key species contributing to BPc. Comparison within and across regions demonstrated regional differences, and both overlap and mismatch between species that are functionally important and those that are dominant in biomass. Knowledge on the functionally important species is crucial when management objectives include the protection of certain ecosystem functions. Available environmental layers were used as predictors to model the spatial distribution of BPc for each area and to explore the underlying drivers of differences. Random forest models were trained using as response variables either i) BPc initially calculated per station; or ii) BPp – the species-specific contribution to BPc – for key species (with subsequent summation of their predicted full-coverage distributions to BPc). Maps of BPc distribution predicted by random forest were compared with those generated using natural neighbour interpolation. Overall, derived BPc values increased towards the German parts of the North and Baltic Seas. The relevance of BPc for ecosystem processes and functions, however, vary with biotic and abiotic settings. Results revealed a strong association of BPc with species diversity and region, but less with sediment grain size. A large range of BPc occurred when species richness was low. This suggests that the provisioning of high bioturbation activity is possible also under low diversity, where it is vulnerable due to reduced resilience. The executed multi-regional analysis allowed identifying regional differences in performance of macrofauna, suggesting the need for regionspecific conservation and management strategies. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2019.105945 Received 26 July 2019; Received in revised form 12 November 2019; Accepted 14 November 2019 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: mayya.gogina@io-warnemuende.de (M. Gogina). Ecological Indicators 110 (2020) 105945 1470-160X/ Crown Copyright © 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T

Description: Over the last decades, the rapid expansion of man-made structures (MMS) in the marine environment has generated increased attention by industry, scientists and legislators. In the North Sea, these hard substrates host fauna that is different from the naturally occurring widespread soft sediment communities. These new areas are expected to have an ecological footprint on the environment. To investigate the potential trophic changes through carbon flows caused by MMS, we built an Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) model focusing on the benthic community. The challenge here was to combine meaningful ecological compartments that are both representative of the benthic functional biodiversity and can detect potential changes in energy flow patterns due to MMS. We adapted a framework developed in terrestrial systems for our analysis whereby the selection of categories was based on functional traits representative of the North Sea fauna, with emphasis on their trophic behaviour, the preferred sediment and environmental position. This method yields a simple, yet effective conceptual trophic network that was then tested under various scenarios. A ‘typical soft bottom’ reference was used to compare the effect of three hard structure scenarios (e.g. ‘offshore wind farm’, ‘oil and gas’ and ‘wrecks’). Temporal assessments of each of these scenarios were also considered (i.e. immediately after construction vs 5 years old structures). The results of these simulations can aid further understanding of the wider effects of man-made structure across the marine food-web, improving the limited knowledge available to date with regards to MMS in these systems.

Description: Over the last decade, the installation and operation of extensive offshore wind farms led to a substantial increase in artificial substrates in the North Sea. Man-made structures (MMS) such as wind turbines, oil and gas rigs represent additional hard-substrate habitats in the areas of the North Sea that are predominantly characterized by soft sediments. Research on large offshore structures has identified a suite of unique effects ranging from biodiversity changes with repercussions on local ecosystem functioning to the provision of habitat for fouling communities, acting as stepping stones also for non-native species. Consequently, MMS might induce structural, functional and process-driven changes over various spatial and temporal scales, that are different from those expected for natural soft-bottom benthic systems. However, our current understanding of how ecological functioning might be modified by the addition of these MMSs is still scarce. Many ecosystem goods and services of the North Sea such as long-term carbon storage and natural resources (e.g. for fish, birds, mammals and finally humans) are intimately linked to the benthic system. Benthic invertebrates form the major food source for many commercially exploited fish species and thus the production (i.e. species energy that is turned into biomass) of benthic communities is of direct relevance for the food provisioning ecosystem service. In this study, production was calculated based on species populations as a quantification of energy flow and trophic interactions. The obtained results may thus provide clear signals for status and possible responses of populations and entire ecosystems to the introduction of MMS. The analysis included different datasets from various monitoring programmes of offshore wind farms and oil and gas rigs (i.e. the production and biomass of fouling communities and of natural soft-bottom community) from the Southern North Sea over several years. We analysed production changes due to environmental parameters and the presence of the structures in a meta-analysis. The analysis revealed clear modifications in the upper parts of MMSs, where the highest production values and potential biomass export to soft bottoms were detected. The outcome may thus represent a first step to disentangle the potential effects of additional biomass discharge from MMS on the ecological functioning of benthic systems.

Description: Maritime industries routinely collect critical environmental data needed for sustainable management of marine ecosystems, supporting both the blue economy and future growth. Collating this information would provide a valuable resource for all stakeholders. For the North Sea, the oil and gas industry has been a dominant presence for over 50 years that has contributed to a wealth of knowledge about the environment. As the industry begins to decommission its offshore structures, this information will be critical for avoiding duplication of effort in data collection and ensuring best environmental management of offshore activities. This paper summarises the outcomes of a Blue Growth Data Challenge Workshop held in 2017 with participants from: the oil and gas industry; the key UK regulatory and management bodies for oil and gas decommissioning; open access data facilitators; and academic and research institutes. Here, environmental data collection and archiving by oil and gas operators in the North Sea are described, alongside how this compares to other offshore industries; what the barriers and opportunities surrounding environmental data sharing are; and how wider data sharing from offshore industries could be achieved. Five primary barriers to data sharing were identified: 1) Incentives, 2) Risk Perception, 3) Working Cultures, 4) Financial Models, and 5) Data Ownership. Active and transparent communication and collaboration between stakeholders including industry, regulatory bodies, data portals and academic institutions will be key to unlocking the data that will be critical to informing responsible decommissioning decisions for offshore oil and gas structures in the North Sea.