Review and collection of the available datasets on indicators and human pressures/impacts on Mediterranean deep deep-sea ecosystems

Abstract

The main aim of the current document is the review of datasets concerning deep-sea indicators and criteria for each Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) descriptor. The compilation of existing datasets was obtained from scientific literature, public datasets related to monitoring programs and openaccess (OA) repositories. Specific keywords such as Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems, Cold-War Corals, MEDITS, hydrography, habitat mapping, fishes, elasmobranchs, zooplankton, meiofauna, macrofauna, benthos, and synonymous terms, with the addition of “Mediterranean” and “deep sea”, were used to generate a list of available literature. Papers and reports that had been reviewed as part of IDEM Task 1.1 (Review of literature on MSFD implementation) were also included. A collection of relevant datasets has been created and summarized through excel spreadsheet with common options and key-words, filled in with the information provided by each dataset and organized per each descriptor. The collected database includes both datasets from literature surveys and from public repositories such as EMODnet (European Marine Observation and Data Network), Copernicus or similar where available. For each dataset/repository at least the following information is reported: Descriptors covered by the dataset; Variables for each dataset and unit of measure; Area and water depth covered; gaps (Geographical/bathymetric); Gaps in habitat/species (in the case of D1, D2, and D3). Quantitative pressures/impacts (papers reporting changes in terms of mean and SD or other errors/extracts shifts on variables from the datasets, e.g. for T, S, O2) are highlighted. However, the options displayed in the spreadsheet only allowed a broad definition of the ecosystem and habitat studied. Data content was the most important feature that needed to be stated for each study. Additional specifications concerning how data is displayed and if they are directly available were added to facilitate subsequent meta-analysis. When reviewing the available literature, papers that included data for more than one “category” were counted more than once (e.g. if a paper contained data for two different types of habitats, it was included in the count of ‘number of papers’ for both habitats). Eleven different spreadsheets have been produced, divided according to descriptor number. They are provided in the Attachment Section. The data compiled will be used for the assessment of the deep Mediterranean status applying meta-analysis and ecosystem-pressure mapping in GIS. The compilation of datasets and studies exposed the current knowledge and research available for each topic. However, one of the most important outcomes was the disclosure of knowledge and data gaps. A brief introduction to the most relevant ones can be found in the next Sections, organized per each descriptor.