Tag Archives: estuaries

Benthic Indicator Species Index (BISI) developed for marine habitat types in Natura 2000 areas.

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View on the Western Scheldt with the skyline of the harbours of Antwerp – S. Wijnhoven (2016)

Benthic Indicator Species Indices (BISIs) specifically developed for quality evaluations of marine Habitat Directive (HD) habitat types and relevant Natura 2000 areas of the Dutch Delta waters, the Wadden Sea and the coastal zone of the North Sea, are available now. Specifically BISIs have been developed for HD-habitat types H1160, H1130, H1110a, H1140a and H1140b*. BISIs have been developed according to BISI v2 (protocol update in progress), taking dominant ecotopes (defining the main distinguishing communities) as the basis to select indicator species for which internal reference occurrences (as used in the indicator) are calculated surface-ratio based. This allows application of the BISI in similar habitats beyond the current Natura 2000 areas for which the indicator has been elaborated and tested here. The developed BISIs are presented with proposals for monitoring programmes with sufficient power to detect potential quality differences, as much as possible making use of current recurring monitoring activities. Indicator development and suggested monitoring programmes for the Eastern Scheldt (Oosterschelde), Western Scheldt (Westerschelde), Wadden Sea (Waddenzee) including Eems-Dollard and intertidal areas in the coastal zone of the Dutch North Sea, are presented in:

Wijnhoven, S. & Van Avesaath, P.H. (2019). Benthische Indicator Soorten Index (BISI) voor mariene habitattypen in Natura 2000-gebieden. Uitwerking beoordelingsmethodiek inclusief monitoringvoorstel voor mariene habitattypen van de Habitatrichtlijn gelegen in de Deltawateren, het Waddenzeegebied en de kustzone van de Noordzee. Ecoauthor Report Series 2019 – 03, Heinkenszand, the Netherlands.

With Assessment Tools for the developed BISIs in Excel-format available from here. Background information on the calculations and test results as indicated in the report is available on request.

(At the moment the report is only available in Dutch)

*Respectively ‘Large shallow inlets and bays’ (H1160), ‘Estuaries’ (H1130), ‘Sandbanks permanently flooded – tidal area’ (H1110a), ‘Intertidal mud flats and sandbanks – tidal area’ (H1140a), ‘Intertidal mud flats and sandbanks – North Sea coastal zone’ (H1140b).

Overview alien species monitoring in the Western Scheldt

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An overview on monitoring activities providing information on the presence of alien species among macrofauna, macro-algae and plankton in the Western Scheldt has  been prepared by Ecoauthor, GiMaRIS and eCOAST. Almost a hundred alien species were observed during the last 25 years, for which vectors of introduction are indicated. The study gives a nice overview of the efficiency of techniques to detect certain alien species groups and the habitats where new alien species are most likely be encoutered. In the meanwhile new alien species have been detected in the Western Scheldt and are amongst others presented in the Transect Monitoring Report of 2017.

– Wijnhoven, S., Gittenberger, A., Faasse, M., Schellekens,T. (2017). Overview alien species monitoring in the Western Scheldt: Current status of monitoring efforts and presence of alien species among macrofauna and algae. Ecoauthor Report Series 2017 – 01, Heinkenszand, the Netherlands.

– Wijnhoven, S. (2017). Non-indigenous species presence and distribution in intertidal hard substrate environments of the Western Scheldt: Results of Transect Monitoring inventory of 2017 compared to 2015-2016. Ecoauthor Report Series 2017-04, Heinkenszand, the Netherlands.

– Wijnhoven, S. (2016). Non-indigenous species presence and distribution in intertidal hard substrate environments of the Western Scheldt: Results of Transect Monitoring inventory of 2016. Ecoauthor Report Series 2016 – 01, Heinkenszand, the Netherlands.

The overview report and the transect monitoring reports for the Western Scheldt are commissioned by the Office for Risk assessment and Research (BuRO) of the
Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA).

Monitoring of exotic species in the Westerschelde

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This gallery contains 4 photos.

As a follow-up on the last years monitoring of hard substrate related macrofauna and macro-algae communities in the intertidal zone of a selection of estuaries with the focus on exotic species within the frame of SEFINS (Safeguarding the Environment from … Continue reading →