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Characterization of ecosystem services can be a valuable element of Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) in identifying meaningful measures of ecosystem change, understanding the natural resource gains or losses associated with changing ecosystem conditions, and communicating those benefits and tradeoffs to stakeholders in an intuitive way. Here, we introduce a descriptive model of the Ecosystem Services Gradient (ESG) that can be paired with the Biological Condition Gradient (BCG). The BCG is a conceptual framework that allows scientists and managers to characterize the status of an aquatic ecosystem along an anthropogenic disturbance gradient by describing and quantifying changes in biological or ecological condition with increasing levels of stressors. The ESG descriptive model builds upon the BCG approach by linking changes in ecosystem condition to effects on human health and well-being via changes in ecosystem goods and services. This involves identifying priority ecosystem services, defining them with metrics and indicators, and applying ecological production functions to translate levels of ecological condition to ecosystem services production. The ESG, through its structured approach to defining and enumerating potential changes in ecosystem services, allows decision makers to clearly assess and monitor the potential benefits, or related co-occurring benefits, of EBM, and significantly enhance how scientists and decision makers communicate these benefits to stakeholders.

The first bay-wide synoptic survey of benthic habitat quality in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, USA, was conducted in August of 1988. Twenty years later, we revisited the same sampling locations as the original survey using similar sediment profile imagery technology and analysis tools. Like estuaries throughout the US, increased temperatures and reductions to anthropogenic nutrient inputs have cumulatively affected Narragansett Bay in the intervening 20 years. To understand how these changes may have influenced benthic organic enrichment and habitat quality, we compared the prevalence and spatial arrangement of benthic biotopes (i.e., biotic and abiotic benthic descriptions) between 1988 and 2008 surveys. Biotopes dominated by Ampelisca spp. tubiculous amphipods increased >fivefold between 1988 and 2008, and expanded into the more urban, anthropogenically stressed Providence River estuary. Ampelisca beds occurred at critical boundaries in organic enrichment and habitat quality in both years and indicated the quantity of organic matter reaching the benthos. In general, benthic biotopes reflect the degree of benthic-pelagic coupling and are an important link between estuarine water quality and other marine life. As estuaries globally cope with the effects of increased warming and legislated anthropogenic nutrient reductions, rapid assessments of benthic biotopes will be critical for understanding changes to whole-estuary condition as a result of these cumulative stressors.

Within the perspective of siting wind farms offshore of Rhode Island, USA, the State and National Environmental Agencies had requested a local marine ecological assessment, which led to an ecological zoning of the area. In view of expanding this zoning outside its limit of the test area and filling gaps in ecological zones, an effort to model those ecological zones using marine landscape or abiotic features was carried out. This study tests the accuracy of selected machine learning algorithmic models, decision tree, and random forest, for relating marine landscapes features to ecological sub-regions. Both models show to be good predictive tools with accuracy after cross validation of the order of 5–3%. Key abiotic variables to provide an accurate model were investigated. The study demonstrates the importance of the distance to coast, the sediment characteristics (fraction of clay, median size of the sediments), the hydrodynamic features, in particular not only tidal current/drag force, but also wave drag force, and finally the oceanographic characteristics such as stratification and sea surface temperature to built a good predictive model. Those findings provide some insight on the pre-monitoring effort optimization.

An important first step in marine spatial planning and ecosystem-based management efforts is the creation of benthic habitat maps that allow scientists and managers to understand the distribution of living and non-living resources on the seafloor. However, the location of boundaries between and composition of habitats is highly dependent on the approach taken to integrate abiotic and biotic information. The purpose of this study was to test “top-down” and “bottom-up” approaches for integrating physical and biological data derived from commonly used sub-tidal benthic mapping tools to create a habitat map compatible with the US Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS). We found that a top-down framework, where we tested for differences in macrofauna assemblages among side scan sonar facies, defined two broad-scale and general habitats. Using the bottom-up approach, where patterns in abiotic and biotic variables were examined with multivariate statistics (BEST, LINKTREE, ANOSIM, SIMPER), we generated seven biotopes based on the macrofauna abundance, percent sand, water depth, and backscatter standard deviation that corresponded well to, but provided more fine-scale detail than the top-down habitats. We were able to use the statistical relationship between abiotic variables and macrofauna assemblages in the LINKTREE to predict the spatial distribution of assemblages over ∼50% of the study area. We created a local catalogue of biotopes specific to our study area that contributes to the CMECS library. In addition, we were able to fully map CMECS Geoform, Surface Geology, and Biotic Cover Components. This mapping effort represented real progress toward reconciling the “data density mismatch” between physical and biological mapping methods, and it provided further evidence that using a bottom-up methodology preserves species–environment relationships.

The Benthic Habitat Quality (BHQ) index was used to assess habitat visible in sediment profile images (SPI) following hypoxia disturbance in a shallow ( −1 , 2.9 mg l −1 , and 4.8 mg l −1 ). Using categorical data analysis, we established empirical relationships between hypoxia prevalence and presence/absence of biogenic features visible in SPI. Fecal pellets, tubes, feeding pits, voids, mounds, and BHQ score were good affirmative features, meaning that their presence (or score greater than 5) indicated a high probability of good water quality. However, low sensitivity to hypoxia precluded their usefulness as indicators, and was attributed to rarity in images and to factors acting on time intervals longer than those examined, e.g. long-term organic enrichment or hypoxia. Burrow structures and the apparent redox potential discontinuity (aRPD), or oxidized layer of surface sediment, were good discriminatory features, with high sensitivity and specificity for both hypoxia and normoxia. Both were strong surrogates for water quality over multiple assessment windows and DO thresholds, and had the highest overall predictive values. We conclude that SPI images can be used to widen the spatial extent of water quality monitoring efforts by utilizing the relationships between aRPD, burrows and hypoxia prevalence.

Coastal ecosystems are affected by ever-increasing natural and human pressures. Because the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics unique to estuarine ecosystems control the ways that biological resources respond to ecosystem stressors, we present a flexible and adaptable biological assessment method for estuaries. The biological condition gradient (BCG) is a scientific framework of biological response to increasing anthropogenic stress that is comprehensive and ecosystem based and evaluates environmental conditions and the status of ecosystem services in order to identify, communicate, and prioritize management action. Using existing data, we constructed the first estuarine BCG framework that examines changes in habitat structure through time. Working in a New England (U.S.) estuary with a long history of human influence, we developed an approach to define a reference level, which we described as a “minimally disturbed” range of conditions for the ecosystem, anchored by observations before 1850 AD. Like many estuaries in the U.S., the relative importance of environmental stressors changed over time, but even qualitative descriptions of the biological indicators’ status provided useful information for defining condition levels. This BCG demonstrated that stressors rarely acted alone and that declines in one biological indicator influenced the declines of others. By documenting the biological responses to cumulative stressors, the BCG inherently suggests an ecosystem-based approach to management. Additionally, the BCG process initiates thinking over long time scales and can be used to inspire scientists, managers, and the public toward environmental action.

The EUNIS (European Union Nature Information System) habitat classification system aims to provide a common European reference set of habitat types within a hierarchical classification, and to cover all terrestrial, freshwater and marine habitats of Europe. The classification facilitates reporting of habitat data in a comparable manner, for use in nature conservation (e.g. inventories, monitoring and assessments), habitat mapping and environmental management. For the marine environment the importance of a univocal habitat classification system is confirmed by the fact that many European initiatives, aimed at marine mapping, assessment and reporting, are increasingly using EUNIS habitat categories and respective codes. For this reason substantial efforts have been made to include information on marine benthic habitats from different regions, aiming to provide a comprehensive geographical coverage of European seas. However, there still remain many concerns on its applicability as only a small fraction of Europe’s seas are fully mapped and increasing knowledge and application raise further issues to be resolved. This paper presents an overview of the main discussion and conclusions of a workshop, organised by the MeshAtlantic project, focusing upon the experience in using the EUNIS habitats classification across different countries and seas, together with case studies. The aims of the meeting were to: (i) bring together scientists with experience in the use of the EUNIS marine classification and representatives from the European Environment Agency (EEA); (ii) agree on enhancements to EUNIS that ensure an improved representation of the European marine habitats; and (iii) establish practices that make marine habitat maps produced by scientists more consistent with the needs of managers and decision-makers. During the workshop challenges for the future development of EUNIS were identified, which have been classified into five categories: (1) structure and hierarchy; (2) biology; (3) terminology; (4) mapping; and (5) future development. The workshop ended with a declaration from the attendees, with recommendations to the EEA and European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity, to take into account the outputs of the workshop, which identify weaknesses in the current classification and include proposals for its modification, and to devise a process to further develop the marine component of the EUNIS habitat classification., Sí

Offshore renewable energy developments (OREDs) are projected to become common in the United States over the next two decades. There are both a need and an opportunity to guide efforts to identify and track impacts to the marine ecosystem resulting from these installations. A monitoring framework and standardized protocols that can be applied to multiple types of ORED would streamline scientific study, management, and permitting at these sites. We propose an adaptive and reactive framework based on indicators of the likely changes to the marine ecosystem due to ORED. We developed decision trees to identify suites of impacts at two scales (demonstration and commercial) depending on energy (wind, tidal, and wave), structure (e.g., turbine), and foundation type (e.g., monopile). Impacts were categorized by ecosystem component (benthic habitat and resources, fish and fisheries, avian species, marine mammals, and sea turtles) and monitoring objectives were developed for each. We present a case study at a commercial-scale wind farm and develop a monitoring plan for this development that addresses both local and national environmental concerns. In addition, framework has provided a starting point for identifying global research needs and objectives for understanding of the potential effects of ORED on the marine environment.

Creating a habitat classification and mapping system for marine and coastal ecosystems is a daunting challenge due to the complex array of habitats that shift on various spatial and temporal scales. To meet this challenge, several countries have, or are developing, national classification systems and mapping protocols for marine habitats. To be effectively applied by scientists and managers it is essential that classification systems be comprehensive and incorporate pertinent physical, geological, biological, and anthropogenic habitat characteristics. Current systems tend to provide over-simplified conceptual structures that do not capture biological habitat complexity, marginalize anthropogenic features, and remain largely untested at finer scales. We propose a multi-scale hierarchical framework with a particular focus on finer scale habitat classification levels and conceptual schematics to guide habitat studies and management decisions. A case study using published data is included to compare the proposed framework with existing schemes. The example demonstrates how the proposed framework’s inclusion of user-defined variables, a combined top-down and bottom-up approach, and multi-scale hierarchical organization can facilitate examination of marine habitats and inform management decisions.