Developing benthic monitoring programmes to support precise and representative status assessments: a case study from...

Area of Science:

• Marine ecology
• Environmental monitoring
• Benthic science

Background:

• Benthic habitats and communities are vital for marine ecosystem functioning and management.
• Over 50 years of zoobenthic monitoring in the Baltic Sea exists, but current programs predate modern policy needs.
• Existing monitoring is not optimized for area-based periodic status assessments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review current zoobenthic monitoring programs in the Baltic Sea.
• To assess the precision and representativity of monitoring data for status assessments.
• To identify improvements for future monitoring strategies.

Main Methods:

• Review of existing zoobenthic monitoring programs.
• Statistical evaluation of variance components in status assessment data.
• Analysis of sampling strategies for precision and representativity.

Main Results:

• Current monitoring primarily focuses on soft-bottoms, neglecting other habitat types.
• Variability among sampling stations is the largest source of uncertainty in status assessments.
• Precision of status estimates can be improved by sampling more stations with reduced effort per station.

Conclusions:

• Adjusting sampling strategies, such as increasing station numbers and spatial distribution, can enhance monitoring precision and representativity.
• Future monitoring program changes must balance improvements with the need to maintain long-term data series.
• Optimized monitoring is essential for effective marine environmental management and assessing Baltic Sea ecosystem health.