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Monitoring and Surveillance Projects and Reports

Projects

UK Marine SACs project (1996-2001)

The UK Marine SACs project was set up to establish management schemes on selected marine Special Areas of Conservation (SACs). It focussed on twelve marine SACs around the UK coastline to build our knowledge and establish the best practise needed for the management and monitoring of marine sites. The Marine Monitoring Handbook is one of the key outputs of the project and is used as guidance by the UK government's statutory nature conservation agencies and their key partners in drawing up monitoring schemes for marine SACs.

Marine Biodiversity and Climate Change (MarClim)

MarClim was a 4 year project that ran from 2001 to 2005. Its focus was primarily on rocky shore habitats investigating how intertidal species across Britain and Ireland (including the Channel Islands) have responded to the rapid climate change that has occurred over the last 50 to 100 years.

Marine Environmental Change Network (MECN)

The Marine Environmental Change Network (MECN) is a collaboration between organisations in England, Scotland, Wales, Isle of Man and Northern Ireland collecting long-term time series information for marine waters. JNCC is involved in this group as part of a wider environmental surveillance programme using information available from other organisations to assess the status (known as condition) of; and identify trends in; marine features on protected sites.

Reports

Report: Review of current and historical seabed biological time-series studies in the UK and near Europe (2003)

If monitoring is to be effective in providing information on the success or failure of site management measures then it is imperative that it is assessed in the context of long-term trends over a broad spatial scale, and from this a coordinated network of long-term reference monitoring sites can be established. In order to do this we needed to identify organisations that are carrying out time-series studies to identify the sufficiency of time-series monitoring and gaps in coverage. In 2003 JNCC commissioned a 'Review of existing and historic time-series studies in the UK and near Europe'. Ninety-two seabed biological surveys that include time-series data have been identified, and a description of each study entered to a Microsoft® Access time-series database available as front page web browsers. All of the 92 datasets reviewed and detailed in the database include some information useful for interpreting temporal change and of these 36 datasets that include data collected in a systematic manner over many years are identified that could form a part of a network of surveillance sites in the UK.

Reference: Hiscock, K. & Kimmance, S., 2003. Review of current and historical time-series seabed biological studies in the UK and near Europe. Report from the Marine Biological Association to the Joint Nature Conservation Committee. (JNCC Contract: F90-01-563).

Report: Identification Of Seabed Indicator Species From Time-Series And Other Studies (2004)

The 2003 'Review of current and historical seabed biological time-series studies' identified the potential for the data from some studies to describe the change in abundance of a particular marine species in response to anthropogenic activities. Consequently, JNCC commissioned a review of existing data with a view to identifying 'indicator' species whose change in abundance may help assess the relative impact of anthropogenic activities on marine habitats. This 'Identification Of Seabed Indicator Species From Time-Series And Other Studies' report was finished in 2004 (Hiscock et al. 2004), with a second edition issued in 2005 (Hiscock et al. 2005a) .

A Seabed Indicators Species database was also set up with a web enabled front end to search information on species, habitat, impact and literature gathered in the indicators species report (Hiscock et al. 2004) and also from the investigation into the development of a hard substratum benthic invertebrate Water Framework Directive compliant classification tool (Hiscock et al. 2005b).

Reference: Hiscock, K., Langmead, O. & Warwick, R. 2004. Identification of seabed indicator species from time-series and other studies to support implementation of the EU Habitats and Water Framework Directives. Report to the Joint Nature Conservation Committee and the Environment Agency from the Marine Biological Association. Plymouth: Marine Biological Association. JNCC Contract F90-01-705. 109 pp.

Reference: Hiscock, K., Langmead, O., Warwick, R. & Smith, A. 2005a. Identification of seabed indicator species to support implementation of the EU Habitats and Water Framework Directives. Second edition. Report to the Joint Nature Conservation Committee and the Environment Agency from the Marine Biological Association. Plymouth: Marine Biological Association. JNCC Contract F90-01-705. 77 pp

Reference: Hiscock, K., Smith, A, Jenknins, S., Hawkins, S & Sewell, J. 2005b. Development of a hard substratum Benthic invertebrate Water Framework Directive compliant classification tool. Report to the Environment Agency and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee from the Marine Biological Association. Plymouth: Marine Biological Association. JNCC Contract F90-01-790. 41pp.