Biodiversity Information System for Europe

Biodiversity Information System for Europe - Marine The marine territory covers 70% of earth surface and more than 50% of the territory of the EU. <st1:place w:st="on">Europes</st1:place> land is surrounded by five sea basins: the Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea, Baltic Sea, North Sea, and the North Atlantic Ocean. Marine ecosystems are diverse: some are highly productive and all are important ecologically and economically to humankind. They provide numerous vital goods and services like food and chemicals and play crucial roles in biogeochemical processes sustaining the entire biosphere. Although the marine realm has less species than the terrestrial it has a greater phylogenetic diversity than land faunas and floras.<img style="margin: 0px; float: right;" src="/bise/images/marine.jpg" alt="" height="429" width="514" /> The main pressures on marine ecosystems are pollution, overexploitation of marine resource, climate change and acidification, sea uses and the introduction and spread of invasive alian species. The conservation assessment of marine habitats and species carried out in the context of the Habitats Directive showed that the overwhelming majority of features had to be assessed as ‘unknown’. Only for 2% of marine species and for 10% of marine habitats the conservation status assessments are witin the category ‘favourable conservation status’. Compared to the terrestrial environment, there are serious delays in identifying marine areas needing protection and even greater delays in establishing their management. Under the EU Habitats and Birds Directive about 2000 sites had been proposed or classified, which are either fully or partly marine. Currently most of these sites are near-shore areas, whereas offshore areas are currently lacking. The EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive specifies inter alia the designation of Marine Protected Areas as a means for <st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place>’s seas to achive ‘good environmental status’.   Further reading: <ul> <li><a href="http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/10-messages-for-2010/message-4-marine-ecosystems.pdf">EEAs message on marine ecosystems</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/eu-2010-biodiversity-baseline/">EU 2010 Biodiversity Baseline report</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/progress-towards-the-european-2010-biodiversity-target">Progress towards the European 2010 biodiversity target</a></li> <li>Results from the <a href="http://origin.coml.org/">First Census of Marine Life</a></li> <li>Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) Report country profiles on target <a href="/bap/compare?country=Austria&objective=Objective3&target=A3_1&cmp_countries%3Alist=Belgium&cmp_countries%3Alist=Bulgaria&cmp_countries%3Alist=Cyprus&cmp_countries%3Alist=Czech+Republic&cmp_countries%3Alist=Denmark&cmp_countries%3Alist=Estonia&cmp_countries%3Alist=Finland&cmp_countries%3Alist=France&cmp_countries%3Alist=Germany&cmp_countries%3Alist=Greece&cmp_countries%3Alist=Hungary&cmp_countries%3Alist=Ireland&cmp_countries%3Alist=Italy&cmp_countries%3Alist=Latvia&cmp_countries%3Alist=Lithuania&cmp_countries%3Alist=Luxembourg&cmp_countries%3Alist=Malta&cmp_countries%3Alist=Netherlands&cmp_countries%3Alist=Poland&cmp_countries%3Alist=Portugal&cmp_countries%3Alist=Romania&cmp_countries%3Alist=Slovakia&cmp_countries%3Alist=Slovenia&cmp_countries%3Alist=Spain&cmp_countries%3Alist=Sweden&cmp_countries%3Alist=United+Kingdom&compare=Compare">3.1</a> and <a href="/bap/compare?country=Austria&objective=Objective3&target=A3_2&cmp_countries%3Alist=Belgium&cmp_countries%3Alist=Bulgaria&cmp_countries%3Alist=Cyprus&cmp_countries%3Alist=Czech+Republic&cmp_countries%3Alist=Denmark&cmp_countries%3Alist=Estonia&cmp_countries%3Alist=Finland&cmp_countries%3Alist=France&cmp_countries%3Alist=Germany&cmp_countries%3Alist=Greece&cmp_countries%3Alist=Hungary&cmp_countries%3Alist=Ireland&cmp_countries%3Alist=Italy&cmp_countries%3Alist=Latvia&cmp_countries%3Alist=Lithuania&cmp_countries%3Alist=Luxembourg&cmp_countries%3Alist=Malta&cmp_countries%3Alist=Netherlands&cmp_countries%3Alist=Poland&cmp_countries%3Alist=Portugal&cmp_countries%3Alist=Romania&cmp_countries%3Alist=Slovakia&cmp_countries%3Alist=Slovenia&cmp_countries%3Alist=Spain&cmp_countries%3Alist=Sweden&cmp_countries%3Alist=United+Kingdom&compare=Compare">3.2</a> - and <a href="/countries_and_networks/bap/community_report/">community level</a></li> </ul>   Selected links: <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/maritimeaffairs/atlas/index_en.htm">European Atlas of the Seas</a> <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/maritimeaffairs/index_en.html">EC Maritime affairs</a> <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/environment/marine/index_en.htm">EC Marine and Coasts</a> <a href="http://www.ospar.org/" target="_blank">OSPAR Convention</a> North East Atlantic Sea <a href="http://www.helcom.fi/" target="_blank">HELCOM</a> <a href="http://www.helcom.fi/" target="_blank">Helsinki Convention</a> Baltic Sea <a href="http://www.unepmap.org/" target="_blank">Barcelona Convention</a> Mediterranean Sea <a href="http://www.blacksea-commission.org/" target="_blank"></a> <a href="http://www.blacksea-commission.org/" target="_blank">Bucharest Convention</a> Black Sea <a href="http://www.ices.dk/aboutus/aboutus.asp">International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES)</a> <a href="http://www.eea.europa.eu/highlights/themes/water/interactive/soe-tcm">WISE - Water quality in transitional, marine and coastal waters</a>   2012-02-17T10:18:27Z tag:biodiversity.europa.eu,2012-02-17:/topics/ecosystems-and-habitats/marine http://biodiversity.europa.eu/misc_/CHM2/Site.gif Biodiversity Information System for Europe