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This guidebook provides an overview of processes for establishing and managing National Biodiversity Platforms (NBPs). It outlines characteristics shared by NBPs around the world and describes reflections about their main elements: objectives, institutional structure, processes and activities, provided by NBP staff from different countries interviewed for generating this guidebook. This guidebook was produced as part of the project “Supporting decision making and building capacity to support IPBES through national ecosystem assessments”, which was funded by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection based on a decision of the German Bundestag. The project was implemented by UNEP-WCMC’s National Ecosystem Assessment Initiative, with support from UNDP’s Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Network (BES-Net). The Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ was a scientific partner in the project and responsible for the preparation of this guidebook.

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Scientific debate on whether or not the recent increase in reports of jellyfish outbreaks represents a true rise in their abundance has outlined a lack of reliable records of Cnidaria and Ctenophora. Here we describe different jellyfish data sets produced within the EU programme EURO-BASIN. These data were assembled with the aim of creating an improved baseline and providing new data that can be used to evaluate the current diversity and standing stocks of jellyfish in the North Atlantic region. Using a net adapted to sample gelatinous zooplankton quantitatively, cnidarians and ctenophores were collected from the epipelagic layer during spring-summer 2010-2013, in inshore and offshore waters between lat 59 and 68 degrees N and long 62 degrees W and 5 degrees E. Jellyfish were also identified and counted in samples opportunistically collected by other sampling equipment in the same region and at two coastal stations in the Bay of Biscay and in the Gulf of Cadiz. Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) samples collected in 2009-2012 were re-analysed with the aim of identifying the time and location of cnidarian blooms across the North Atlantic Basin. Overall the data show high variability in jellyfish abundance and diversity, mainly in relation to different water masses and bathymetry. Higher densities were generally recorded on the shelves, where the communities tend to be more diverse due to the presence of meropelagic medusae. Comparison of net records from the G.O. Sars transatlantic cruise shows that information on jellyfish diversity differs significantly depending on the sampling gear utilised. Indeed, the big trawls mostly collect relatively large scyphozoan and hydrozoan species, while small hydrozoans and early stages of Ctenophora are only caught by smaller nets. Based on CPR data from 2009 to 2012, blooms of cnidarians occurred in all seasons across the whole North Atlantic Basin. Molecular analysis revealed that, contrary to previous hypotheses, the CPR is abl

The North Sea provides a useful model for considering forage fish (FF) within ecosystem-based management as it has a complex assemblage of FF species. This paper is designed to encourage further debate and dialogue between stakeholders about management objectives. Changing the management of fisheries on FF will have economic consequences for all fleets in the North Sea. The predators that are vulnerable to the depletion of FF are Sandwich terns, great skua and common guillemots, and to a lesser extent, marine mammals. Comparative evaluations of management strategies are required to consider whether maintaining the reserves of prey biomass or a more integral approach of monitoring mortality rates across the trophic system is more robust under the ecosystem approach. In terms of trophic energy transfer, stability, and resilience of the ecosystem, FF should be considered as both a sized-based pool of biomass and as species components of the system by managers and modellers. Policy developers should not consider the knowledge base robust enough to embark on major projects of ecosystem engineering. Management plans appear able to maintain sustainable exploitation in the short term. Changes in the productivity of FF populations are inevitable so management should remain responsive and adaptive., The North Sea provides a useful model for considering forage fish (FF) within ecosystem-based management as it has a complex assemblage of FF species. This paper is designed to encourage further debate and dialogue between stakeholders about management objectives. Changing the management of fisheries on FF will have economic consequences for all fleets in the North Sea. The predators that are vulnerable to the depletion of FF are Sandwich terns, great skua and common guillemots, and to a lesser extent, marine mammals. Comparative evaluations of management strategies are required to consider whether maintaining the reserves of prey biomass or a more integral approach of monitoring mortality rates across the trophic system is more robust under the ecosystem approach. In terms of trophic energy transfer, stability, and resilience of the ecosystem, FF should be considered as both a sized-based pool of biomass and as species components of the system by managers and modellers. Policy developers should not consider the knowledge base robust enough to embark on major projects of ecosystem engineering. Management plans appear able to maintain sustainable exploitation in the short term. Changes in the productivity of FF populations are inevitable so management should remain responsive and adaptive.

The European anchovy Engraulis encrasicolus population of the North Sea has increased and spread in recent decades, probably in response to the relaxation of limiting factors in its life history. We use models and empirical data to explore the effects of temperature and food availability during the first growing season on the adult anchovy population across the North Sea. First, we compare simulated growth during summer and autumn, from a dynamic energy budget model, with trends in the time series of anchovy survey catch per unit effort. The proportion of the area of the North Sea in which anchovy can grow to 10 cm (the potential growth habitat) correlates with the abundance of anchovy caught in surveys the following year. Second, spatio-temporal statistical modeling is used to show that anchovy abundance in surveys is related to environmental variables (temperature and food availability). Temperature explains the distribution and abundance of anchovy in the North Sea better than food availability or a combination of both environmental factors. We conclude that variations in growth during the first months of life can impact anchovy life cycle closure. Specifically for the North Sea anchovy, changes in temperature are more important than changes in food availability in allowing the fish to grow to overwintering size, under probably non-food-limited conditions.

Evolutionary impact assessment is a framework for quantifying the effects of harvest-induced evolution on the utility generated by fish stocks.

There is a growing body of scientific evidence indicating that fisheries can cause evolutionary responses over time periods as short as 1020 years, in particular in traits such as the onset of maturation. As these changes will most likely result in a reduction of the productivity of a fish stock, management objectives and (precautionary) reference points for sustainable exploitation need to be re-defined, and new objectives and reference points for managing fisheries-induced evolution need to be developed. Current knowledge allows for two generalisations. First, reducing harvest rates will almost always slow the rate and extent of fisheries-induced evolution in most life-history traits. Second, raising a stock's minimum size limit for exploitation well above the size range over which maturation occurs will slow down the rate of evolution in its maturation schedule. To go beyond these generic insights, 'Evolutionary Impact Assessments' (EvoIAs) are proposed to quantify the effects of management measures, through the evolutionary response of specific stocks, on the utility functions defined by managers. The Study Group on Fisheries Induced Adaptive Change [SGFIAC] proposes to further develop this framework in dialogue with fisheries scientists and managers, with the aim of integrating the effects of fisheries-induced evolution into fisheries management advice. Developing EvoIAs in the context of suitable case studies is considered to be the most efficient way for making progress.

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