FN Archimer Export Format PT J TI Assessing the environmental status of selected North Atlantic deep-sea ecosystems BT AF Kazanidis, Georgios Orejas, Covadonga Borja, Angel Kenchington, Ellen Henry, Lea-Anne Callery, Oisín Carreiro-Silva, Marina Egilsdottir, Hronn Giacomello, Eva Grehan, Anthony Menot, Lenaick Morato, Telmo Ragnarsson, Stefán Áki Rueda, José Luis Stirling, David Stratmann, Tanja van Oevelen, Dick Palialexis, Andreas Johnson, David Roberts, J Murray AS 1:1;2:2;3:3;4:4;5:1;6:5;7:6;8:7;9:6;10:5;11:8;12:6;13:7;14:9;15:10;16:11;17:11;18:12;19:1,13;20:1,14; FF 1:;2:;3:;4:;5:;6:;7:;8:;9:;10:;11:PDG-REM-EEP-LEP;12:;13:;14:;15:;16:;17:;18:;19:;20:; C1 Changing Oceans Research Group, School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, UK Spanish Institute of Oceanography, (IEO), Oceanographic Centre of the Balearics (COB), Ecosystem Oceanography Group (GRECO), Spain AZTI, Marine Research, Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Spain Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Bedford Institute of Oceanography (DFO), Canada National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland IMAR-Instituto do Mar, OKEANOS Research Centre, Universidade dos Açores, Horta, Portugal Marine and Freshwater Research Institute, Iceland Ifremer, REM/EEP/LEP, Centre de Bretagne, Plouzané, France Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO), Oceanographic Centre of Málaga (COMA), Fuengirola (Málaga), Spain Marine Scotland Science, Marine Laboratory, 375 Victoria Road, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Department of Estuarine and Delta Systems, and Utrecht University, Yerseke, the Netherlands European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Ispra, Italy Seascape Consultants Ltd, UK Center for Marine Science, University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Wilmington, NC, USA C2 UNIV EDINBURGH, UK IEO, SPAIN AZTI, SPAIN MPO BEDFORD INST OCEANOG, CANADA UNIV NATL IRELAND, IRELAND UNIV ACORES, PORTUGAL MFRI, ICELAND IFREMER, FRANCE IEO, SPAIN MARINE SCOTLAND SCI (NRL), UK INST SEA RESEARCH (NIOZ), NETHERLANDS JRC, ITALY SEASCAPE CONSULTANTS LTD, UK UNIV N CAROLINA, USA SI BREST SE PDG-REM-EEP-LEP IN WOS Ifremer UPR copubli-europe copubli-int-hors-europe IF 1.14 TC 24 UR https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00651/76276/77241.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00651/76276/77242.docx https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00651/76276/77243.xml LA English DT Article DE ;Deep-sea environmental status;Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems;Indicators;Baselines;Marine Strategy Framework Directive;NEAT AB The deep sea is the largest biome on Earth but the least explored. Our knowledge of it comes from scattered sources spanning different spatial and temporal scales. Implementation of marine policies like the European Union’s Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) and support for Blue Growth in the deep sea are therefore hindered by lack of data. Integrated assessments of environmental status require tools to work with different and disaggregated datasets (e.g. density of deep-sea habitat-forming species, body-size distribution of commercial fishes, intensity of bottom trawling) across spatial and temporal scales. A feasibility study was conducted as part of the four-year ATLAS project to assess the effectiveness of the open-access Nested Environmental status Assessment Tool (NEAT) to assess deep-sea environmental status. We worked at nine selected study areas in the North Atlantic focusing on five MSFD descriptors (D1-Biodiversity, D3-Commercial fish and shellfish, D4-Food webs, D6-Seafloor integrity, D10-Marine litter). The objectives of the present study were to i) explore and propose indicators that could be used in the assessment of deep-sea environmental status, ii) evaluate the performance of NEAT in the deep sea, and iii) identify challenges and opportunities for the assessment of deep-sea status. Based on data availability, data quality and expert judgement, in total 24 indicators (one for D1, one for D3, seven for D4, 13 for D6, two for D10) were used in the assessment of the nine study areas, their habitats and ecosystem components. NEAT analyses revealed differences among the study areas for their environmental status ranging from “poor” to “high”. Overall, the NEAT results were in moderate to complete agreement with expert judgement, previous assessments, scientific literature on human-pressure gradients and expected management outcomes. We suggest that the assessment of deep-sea environmental status should take place at habitat and ecosystem level (rather than at species level) and at relatively large spatial scales, in comparison to shallow-water areas. Limited knowledge across space (e.g. distribution of habitat-forming species) and the scarcity of long-term data sets limit our knowledge about natural variability and human impacts in the deep sea preventing a more systematic assessment of habitat and ecosystem components in the deep sea. However, stronger cross-sectoral collaborations, the use of novel technologies and open data-sharing platforms will be critical for establishing environmental baseline indicator values in the deep sea that will contribute to the science base supporting the implementation of marine policies and stimulating Blue Growth. PY 2020 PD DEC SO Ecological Indicators SN 1470-160X PU Elsevier BV VL 119 UT 000579817600003 DI 10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.106624 ID 76276 ER EF