Laura Uusitalo

Finnish Environment Institute | ymparisto · Programme for Environmental Information

Efforts to renew marine ecosystem monitoring to include advanced technology and cost-effective methods have been repeatedly called for. The current environmental legislation in European Union (EU) requires also ecosystem monitoring beyond the scope of conventional methods and sampling strategies. Despite several studies showing the benefits of new...

Ecosystem-based management requires understanding of food webs. Consequently, assessment of food web status is mandatory according to the European Union’s Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) for EU Member States. However, how to best monitor and assess food webs in practise has proven a challenging question. Here, we review and assess the cu...

Sustainable environmental management needs to consider multiple ecological and societal objectives simultaneously while accounting for the many uncertainties arising from natural variability, insufficient knowledge about the system's behaviour leading to diverging model projections, and changing ecosystem. In this paper we demonstrate how a Bayesia...

Global deterioration of marine ecosystems, together with increasing pressure to use them, has created a demand for new, more efficient and cost-efficient monitoring tools that enable assessing changes in the status of marine ecosystems. However, demonstrating the cost-efficiency of a monitoring method is not straightforward as there are no generall...

Mineral deposits containing commercially exploit-able metals are of interest for seabed mineral extraction in both the deep sea and shallow sea areas. However, the development of seafloor mining is underpinned by high uncertainties on the implementation of the activities and their consequences for the environment. To avoid unbridled expansion of ma...

Blooms of cyanobacteria are recurrent phenomena in coastal estuaries. Their maximum abundance coincides with the productive period of zooplankton and pelagic fish. Experimental studies indicate that diazotrophic, i.e. dinitrogen (N2)-fixing cyanobacterial (taxonomic order Nostocales) blooms affect zooplankton, as well as other phytoplankton. We use...

Detecting socio-ecological boundaries in traditional rural landscapes is very important for the planning and sustainability of these landscapes. Most of the traditional methods to detect ecological boundaries have two major shortcomings: they are unable to include uncertainty, and they often exclude socio-economic information. This paper presents a...

Seabed mining is approaching the commercial mining phase across the world's oceans. This rapid industrialization of seabed resource use is introducing new pressures to marine environments. The environmental impacts of such pressures should be carefully evaluated prior to permitting new activities, yet observational data is mostly missing. Here, we...

A multitude of anthropogenic pressures deteriorate the Baltic Sea, resulting in the need to protect and restore its marine ecosystem. For an efficient conservation, comprehensive monitoring and assessment of all ecosystem elements is of fundamental importance. The Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission HELCOM coordinates conservation measu...

Legislations and commitments regulate Baltic Sea status assessments and monitoring. These assessments suffer from monitoring gaps that need prioritization. We used three sources of information; scientific articles, project reports and a stakeholder survey to identify gaps in relation to requirements set by the HELCOM's Baltic Sea Action Plan, the M...

Ecological indicator approaches typically compare the prevailing state of an ecosystem component to a reference state reflecting good environmental conditions, i.e. the desirable state. However, defining the reference state is challenging due to a wide range of uncertainties related to natural variability and measurement error in data, as well as e...

Human activities both depend upon and have consequences on the environment. Environmental risk assessment (ERA) is a process of estimating the probability and consequences of human activities’ and other stressors’ adverse effects on the environment. Bayesian Networks (BNs) can synthesize different types of knowledge and explicitly account for the p...

Incorporating stakeholder views is a key element in successful environmental management, particularly if the managed system delivers cultural and provisioning ecosystem services directly to the stakeholders, or if there are conflicting views about the ecosystem functioning or its optimal management. One such system is the Archipelago Sea in the Sou...

This report describes the present marine state and load monitoring maintained and coordinated by SYKE. Additionally, goals for the development of monitoring, as well as for more efficient and easier utilization of monitoring data by 2026 are presented. This evaluation and development report is based on a survey made in 2016 encaging c. 30 experts f...

Understanding marine ecosystem structure and functioning is crucial in supporting sustainable management of natural resources and monitoring the health of marine ecosystems. The current study utilized stable isotope (SI) mixing models and trophic position models to examine energy flow, trophic relationships, and benthic‐pelagic coupling between foo...

The marine environment in the Swedish marine areas cannot reach Good environmental status (GES) 2020. Thus, measures are needed to reduce human impact. Consumption patterns are one of the possible driving forces, which affects the marine environment, and it needs to be better analysed. In a pilot project, the consumption of seafood was analysed par...

A challenge of the EU's Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) is to ensure comparable status assessments for good environmental status (GES) in the European seas. To this end, the role of dynamic oceanographic features affecting GES must be understood. Natural variability is recognized in the MSFD, but only vague advice is available for scient...

Oceans around the world are threatened by human pressures. Ecological indicators are useful tools in understanding complex systems and their changes caused by human pressures, and the information they offer is also needed for ecosystem-based management. Integrated assessments combine information produced by several indicators at different spatial s...

A major challenge in environmental modeling is to identify structural changes in the ecosystem across time, i.e., changes in the underlying process that generates the data. In this paper, we analyze the Baltic Sea food web in order to 1) examine potential unobserved processes that could affect the ecosystem and 2) make predictions on some variables...

In the Appendix more information about the data used in the analyses is provided, including information about the fish monitoring areas and discretization (cut points) of the variables in different models. In addition the performance metrics comparison for different classifiers tested (in addition to TAN) and general analysis protocol are provided.

The state of marine ecosystems is increasingly evaluated using indicators. The indicator assessment results need to be understood in the context of the whole ecosystem in order to understand the key factors determining the status of these environmental components. Data available from the system's different components are, however, often heterogeneo...

Ecosystems are known to change in terms of their structure and functioning over time. Modelling this change is a challenge, however, as data are scarce, and models often assume that the relationships between ecosystem components are invariable over time. Dynamic Bayesian Networks (DBN) with hidden variables have been proposed as a method to overcom...

Indicators are used to help managers to conserve biodiversity and guarantee the sustainable use of marine resources. Good indicators are scientifically valid, ecologically relevant, respond to pressures, and it is possible to set target levels for them. Zooplankton is an important link in the food web as it transfers energy from primary producers (...

Wide-ranging, indicator-based assessments of large, complex ecosystems are playing an increasing role in guiding environmental policy and management. An example is the EU's Marine Strategy Framework Directive, which requires Member States to take measures to reach “good environmental status” (GES) in European marine waters. However, formulation of...

https://www.havochvatten.se/download/18.5114cf181604c603d486bf14/1513605492010/statusklassning-inom-msfd-ostersjon.pdf

Semi-automated classification of zooplankton allows increasing the number of processed samples cost-effectively, albeit with a relatively limited taxonomic accuracy, partly because cost-efficiency trade-off but also due to technological limitations that might be overcome in the future. The present study tests the suitability of using a cost-efficie...

Combining the existing knowledge on links between functional characteristics of phytoplankton taxa and food web functioning with the methods from long-term data analysis, we present an approach for using phytoplankton monitoring data to draw conclusions on potential effects of phytoplankton taxonomic composition on the next trophic level. This info...

A Catalogue of Marine Biodiversity Indicators was developed with the aim of providing the basis for assessing the environmental status of the marine ecosystems. Useful for the implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), this catalogue allows the navigation of a database of indicators mostly related to biological diversity, non...

We analysed long-term monitoring data from 1979 to 2012 in the Gulf of Bothnia, the northernmost extension of the Baltic Sea, to examine changes in the summer food web structure, and to reveal the factors causing the observed changes. Of the two sub-basins in the Gulf of Bothnia, the Bothnian Sea is more dynamic in its hydrography and food web stru...

Monitoring data facilitate the basic understanding of changes taking place in nature and provide information for making management decisions, but environmental monitoring is often considered expensive. Here, we apply the concept of value of information to evaluate the value of marine monitoring in the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive context....

In Europe, and around the world, the approach to management of the marine environment has developed from the management of single issues (e.g. species and/or pressures) towards holistic Ecosystem Based Management that includes aims to maintain biodiversity and protect ecosystem functioning. Within the European Union, this approach is implemented th...

Sustainability of marine ecosystems and their services are dependent on marine biodiversity, which is threatened worldwide. Biodiversity protection is a major target of the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive, requiring assessment of the status of biodiversity on the level of species, habitats, and ecosystems including genetic diversity and the...

Human activities, both established and emerging, increasingly affect the provision of marine ecosystem services that deliver societal and economic benefits. Monitoring the status of marine ecosystems and determining how human activities change their capacity to sustain benefits for society requires an evidence-based Integrated Ecosystem Assessment...

The Marine Strategy Framework Directive requires the environmental status of European marine waters to be assessed using biodiversity as 1 out of 11 descriptors, but the complexity of marine biodiversity and its large span across latitudinal and salinity gradients have been a challenge to the scientific community aiming to produce approaches for in...

We analyze dynamically optimal eutrophication management using two controls, targeted fishing and reduction of external nutrient loads. Fishing removes nutrients from the water ecosystem, and the size of the fish stock also influences eutrophication through food web effects and other mechanisms. We show that fisheries have a role to play in cost-ef...

The European Marine Strategy Framework Directive requires the EU Member States to estimate the level of anthropogenic impacts on their marine systems using 11 Descriptors. Assessing food web response to altered habitats is addressed by Descriptor 4 and its indicators, which are being developed for regional seas. However, the development of simple f...

Seasonal development of (a) phytoplankton biomass, (b) zooplankton biomass, and (c) estimated food consumption by zooplanktivorous fish in the Baltic Sea, northern Baltic proper. (PDF)

Variation in coefficient of variation (CV%, mean±SD) for different indicators before and after Box-Cox transformation. The transformation significantly decreased variance for all indicators except CB% and MMB% (Wilcoxon signed rank test, p < 0.015). The indicator-specific CV% values correspond to (A) the entire time series, (B) the reference period...

Details for zooplankton sampling and analysis methods employed in the national laboratories. (PDF)

Control charts for all indicators with baselines estimated for the entire data sets (upper panel), RefConChl (middle panel), and RefConFish (bottom panel). Upper (red line) and lower (blue line) DI-CuSums and Shewhart z-scores (open circles) are shown on the left and right y-axes, respectively. A shaded area represents in-control Shewhart limits an...

Pairplot for the correlations between the indicators for all datasets combined. (PDF)

Classification accuracy for binary logistic models predicting zooplankton community structure being in the reference state (in-control) or not (out-of-control) for RefConChl (A) and RefConFish (B); see Table 4 for the list of models and their specifications. Significantly higher and less variable prediction accuracy was obtained for identification...

Pearson r correlations among the indicators in each dataset. Significant correlations at p < 0.05 are in bold; n–number of samples (i.e., the number of years included in the dataset). See Tables 1 and 2 for indicator and dataset descriptions. (PDF)

Abstract Sustainability of marine ecosystems and their services are dependent on marine biodiversity, which is threatened worldwide. Biodiversity protection is a major target of the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive, requiring assessment of the status of biodiversity on the level of species, habitats, and ecosystems including genetic diversity...

Efforts to attain good environmental status in the marine realm require decisions which cannot be done without knowledge of effects of different management measures. Given the wide diversity of marine ecosystems, multitude of pressures affecting it and the still poor understanding on linkages between those, there are likely no models available to g...

The European Marine Strategy Framework Directive aims at good environmental status (GES) in marine waters, following an ecosystem-based approach, focused on 11 descriptors related to ecosystem features, human drivers and pressures. Furthermore, 29 subordinate criteria and 56 attributes are detailed in an EU Commission Decision. The analysis of the...

Biodiversity is globally recognised as a cornerstone of healthy ecosystems, and biodiversity conservation is increasingly becoming one of the important aims of environmental management. Evaluating the tradeoffs of alternative management strategies requires quantitative estimates of the costs and benefits of their outcomes, including the value of bi...

There is an increasing need for environmental management advice that is wide-scoped, covering various interlinked policies, and realistic about the uncertainties related to the possible management actions. To achieve this, efficient decision support integrates the results of pre-existing models. Many environmental models are deterministic, but the...

Assessing the environmental status of marine ecosystems is useful when communicating key messages to policymakers or the society, reducing the complex information of the multiple ecosystem and biodiversity components and their important spatial and temporal variability into manageable units. Taking into account the ecosystem components to be addres...

The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD; Directive 2008/56/EC, hereafter ‘Directive‘) is a major step forward for European and indeed global marine environmental management and is an ambitious piece of legislation which extends environmental control out to the 200nm limit. It is globally-leading as no other areas have similar legislation and...

Within the DEVOTES project, a catalogue of existing indicators of marine biodiversity and closely related topics such as non-indigenous species, food-webs, and seafloor integrity (EU Marine Strategy MSFD Descriptors 1, 2, 4, 6) has been established. Currently, the catalogue includes 557 entries with information on metadata ranging from indicator de...

Abstract Assessing the environmental status of marine ecosystems is useful when communicating key messages to policymakers or the society, reducing the complex information of the multiple ecosystem and biodiversity components and their important spatial and temporal variability into manageable units. Taking into account the ecosystem components to...

This work describes the development of the EU Water Framework Directive central water quality elements from 1970 to 2010 in the Gulf of Finland, a eutrophied sub-basin of the Baltic Sea. The likelihood of accomplishing the management objectives simultaneously is assessed using Bayesian networks. The objectives of good ecological status in summer-ti...

This work describes the development of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) central water quality elements from 1970 to 2010 in the Gulf of Finland, a eutrophied subbasin of the Baltic Sea. The objectives of good ecological status in summer-time nutrient concentration, chlorophyll a concentration and Secchi depth are not met at present and it is...

The European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requires EU Member States (MS) to achieve Good Environmental Status (GEnS) of their seas by 2020. We address the question of what GEnS entails especially with regard to the level at which targets are set (descriptors, criteria, indicators), to scales for assessments (regional, sub-divisions, s...

We developed a generic, age-structured, state-space stock assessment model that can be used as a platform for including information elicited from stakeholders. The model tracks the mean size-at-age and then uses it to explain rates of natural and fishing mortality. The fishery selectivity is divided to two components, which makes it possible to mod...

Uusitalo, L., Fleming-Lehtinen, V., Hällfors, H., Jaanus A., Hällfors, S., and London, L. 2013. A novel approach for estimating phytoplankton biodiversity – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 70: 408–417. Maintaining biodiversity is one of the main priorities in environmental protection. The biodiversity of phytoplankton, the key primary producers in...