Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems (Vmes) Coral and Sponge Vmes in Arctic and Sub-Arctic Waters – Distribution and Threats Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems (Vmes)
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Vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs) Coral and sponge VMEs in Arctic and sub-Arctic waters – Distribution and threats Vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs) Coral and sponge VMEs in Arctic and sub-Arctic waters – Distribution and threats Lene Buhl-Mortensen, Julian Mariano Burgos, Petur Steingrund, Pål Buhl-Mortensen, Steinunn H Ólafsdóttir and Stefán Á Ragnarsson TemaNord 2019:519 Vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs) Coral and sponge VMEs in Arctic and sub-Arctic waters - Distribution and threats Lene Buhl-Mortensen, Julian Mariano Burgos, Petur Steingrund, Pål Buhl-Mortensen, Steinunn H Ólafsdóttir and Stefán Á Ragnarsson ISBN 978-92-893-6085-2 (PRINT) ISBN 978-92-893-6086-9 (PDF) ISBN 978-92-893-6087-6 (EPUB) http://dx.doi.org/10.6027/TN2019-519 TemaNord 2019:519 ISSN 0908-6692 Standard: PDF/UA-1 ISO 14289-1 © Nordic Council of Ministers 2019 Cover photo: Steinunn H. Ólafsdóttir. Hafrannsóknastofnun, Marine and Freshwater Research Institute. A “cold water coral reef” VME, with common associated species, from video mapping off Iceland. Print: Rosendahls Printed in Denmark Disclaimer This publication was funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers. However, the content does not necessarily reflect the Nordic Council of Ministers’ views, opinions, attitudes or recommendations. Rights and permissions This work is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0. Translations: If you translate this work, please include the following disclaimer: This translation was not produced by the Nordic Council of Ministers and should not be construed as official. The Nordic Council of Ministers cannot be held responsible for the translation or any errors in it. Adaptations: If you adapt this work, please include the following disclaimer along with the attribution: This is an adaptation of an original work by the Nordic Council of Ministers. 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The Nordic Council of Ministers Nordens Hus Ved Stranden 18 DK-1061 Copenhagen K, Denmark Tel.: +45 3396 0200 www.norden.org Download Nordic publications at www.norden.org/nordpub Contents Summary .................................................................................................................................. 7 1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 9 1.1 Background ............................................................................................................. 9 1.2 Predictive mapping for area-based management .................................................... 10 2. Study area ......................................................................................................................... 13 3. Project objectives, structure and activities ......................................................................... 15 3.1 The main objectives of NovasArc: ........................................................................... 15 3.2 Main tasks............................................................................................................... 15 3.3 Workshops .............................................................................................................. 17 3.4 Joint activities ......................................................................................................... 17 3.5 Project dissemination ............................................................................................. 18 4. Data and methods ............................................................................................................ 19 4.1 Data gathering ....................................................................................................... 19 5. Definition of VMEs .............................................................................................................23 5.1 Criteria to identify VMEs .........................................................................................23 5.2 VME types selected for this project ........................................................................ 24 6. Distribution of cold-water corals in the Arctic and sub-Arctic – New knowledge from NovasArc . 33 7. Predictive modelling of suitable habitat for VMEs .............................................................. 35 7.1 Environmental predictors ........................................................................................ 35 7.2 Predictive distribution models of VMEs ...................................................................38 7.3 Results from model ................................................................................................ 39 8. Threats to VMEs in the N-Atlantic ......................................................................................43 8.1 Evaluating human impact on VMEs .........................................................................43 8.2 Compilation of data on trawling effort.................................................................... 44 9. Risk analysis ...................................................................................................................... 51 9.1 Method used ........................................................................................................... 51 9.2 Results ................................................................................................................... 52 9.3 Methodological uncertainties .................................................................................. 53 10. General conclusions and future work .............................................................................. 61 10.1 Future needs .......................................................................................................... 62 10.2 Acknowledgement ................................................................................................. 62 11. References ....................................................................................................................... 63 12. Summary in Danish .......................................................................................................... 69 List of appendices .................................................................................................................... 71 Appendix 1. List of participants ................................................................................................ 73 Appendix 2. Timeline of activities ............................................................................................ 75 Appendix 3. List of VME species ............................................................................................... 77 Appendix 4. Data sources ........................................................................................................ 79 Appendix 5. Predicted VME distribution ...................................................................................83 Appendix 6. Overlap between fishing intensity and predicted VME distributions ..................... 89 Appendix 7. Identification guides ........................................................................................... 101 Underwater Identification guide for corals and sponges in the Nordic Seas ...................... 101 Identification guide for corals and sponges as by-catch from bottom trawling .................. 136 5 6 Vulnerable marine ecosystems (VME) Summary The report presents results from the NovasArc project and based on information that has been collated by the project it provides the distribution of vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs) in Arctic and sub-Arctic waters. Eleven VMEs were identified, based on management goals for coral and sponge communities, of these Sponge agreggations and sublittoral