ICES BEWG 2005 Report ICES Marine Habitat Committee ICES CM 2005/E:07 REF. ACME, ACE, B Report of the Benthos Ecology Working Group (BEWG) 19–22 April 2005 Copenhagen, Denmark International Council for the Exploration of the Sea Conseil International pour l’Exploration de la Mer H.C. Andersens Boulevard 44–46 DK-1553 Copenhagen V Denmark Telephone (+45) 33 38 67 00 Telefax (+45) 33 93 42 15 www.ices.dk [email protected] Recommended format for purposes of citation: ICES. 2005. Report of the Benthos Ecology Working Group, 19–22 April 2005, Copenhagen, Denmark. ICES CM 2005/E:07. 88 pp. For permission to reproduce material from this publication, please apply to the General Secre- tary. The document is a report of an Expert Group under the auspices of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea and does not necessarily represent the views of the Council. © 2005 International Council for the Exploration of the Sea ICES BEWG 2005 Report | i Contents Executive Summary .................................................................................................................1 1 Opening and local organisation......................................................................................3 1.1 Appointment of Rapporteur.....................................................................................3 1.2 Terms of Reference .................................................................................................3 2 Adoption of agenda..........................................................................................................3 3 Report on ICES meetings and other meetings of interest ............................................3 3.1 ASC, Vigo 10/2004 .................................................................................................3 3.2 MHC, Vigo 2004.....................................................................................................3 3.3 ACE, Vigo 2004 ......................................................................................................3 3.4 ACME, Vigo 2004...................................................................................................3 3.5 SGQAE/SGQAB, Copenhagen 2005 ......................................................................4 3.6 WGMHM ................................................................................................................4 3.7 WGEXT, San Sebastian 2005..................................................................................4 3.8 MARBEF, Porto 2005 .............................................................................................4 3.9 WGECO, Copenhagen 2005....................................................................................5 3.10 WGDEC, Copenhagen 2005....................................................................................6 3.10.1 Seamounts...................................................................................................6 3.10.2 Cold-water corals on Rockall and Hatton Banks........................................6 3.11 IOC-UNESCO Workshop on Benthic Indicators, Sardinia 2004 ............................6 3.12 Helgoland workshop, 2005......................................................................................6 3.13 History of BEWG ....................................................................................................6 4 Report of co-operative studies and other studies relevant to ICES.............................7 4.1 Co-operative studies ................................................................................................7 4.1.1 Catch efficiency of a standardized 2 m beam trawl (EPICATCH) .............7 4.1.2 Long-term studies of the Barents Sea .........................................................7 4.1.3 Benthic monitoring in the Basque Country.................................................7 4.1.4 Wave energy installations and the impact on benthos fauna and flora .......7 4.2 Benthos and fisheries...............................................................................................7 4.2.1 RESPONSE project ....................................................................................7 4.2.2 Does the fauna in closed areas around production platforms in the southern North Sea reflect different fishing intensity? ...............................8 4.3 Benthos of soft sediments........................................................................................8 4.3.1 MAFCONS.................................................................................................8 4.3.2 HABMAP .................................................................................................10 4.3.3 BWZee......................................................................................................11 4.3.4 Benthic Infaunal Monitoring of the St Lucie Estuary and the Southern Indian River Lagoon.................................................................................11 4.3.5 The response of hyperbenthos, infauna, and foraminifera to hypoxia in Fjord-Basins..............................................................................................12 4.4 Benthos of hard substrates.....................................................................................12 4.4.1 BeoFINO ..................................................................................................12 4.4.2 Artificial reefs...........................................................................................13 4.4.3 Long-term monitoring of a rocky-bottom macrobenthic community in Arctic Kongsfjorden, Svalbard .................................................................13 4.4.4 Gammarus tigrinus arrived in the Gulf of Riga in July 2003 ...................14 ii | ICES BEWG 2005 Report 2005 5 Review the report and activities of the Study Group on the North Sea Benthos Project 2000....................................................................................................................14 5.1 SGNSBP meeting in Copenhagen .........................................................................14 5.2 Identify sources of available data on the North Sea Ecosystem by expert groups contributing to the REGNS process.......................................................................15 6 Contribution with MCWG and WGBEC to an assessment of the long-term impact of oil spills on marine and coastal life, based on a list of issues from OSPAR..........17 6.1 Request for advice on development of guidelines for the assessment of long- term effects of oil spills .........................................................................................17 6.1.1 Response to outstanding issues.................................................................17 6.1.2 Assessment recommendations ..................................................................19 6.2 Example of the assessment of the long-term impact of the oil spills on marine and coastal life.......................................................................................................19 7 Review of the results of intersessional work on the compilation of biological criteria for the selection of dredged material disposal sites, to support the formulation of new biological criteria..........................................................................21 7.1 Structure of the overview ......................................................................................21 7.2 Important considerations .......................................................................................22 7.3 Supporting considerations .....................................................................................22 7.4 Review of available case studies: ..........................................................................22 7.5 Discussion..............................................................................................................23 7.6 Recommendations .................................................................................................23 8 Review the status of indicator metrics, for 2005 including, the development and its applications for phytobenthos and hard-substrata benthos..................................23 8.1 Review ..................................................................................................................23 8.2 References .............................................................................................................25 9 Work with Working Group on the Statistical Aspects of Environmental Monitoring (WGSAEM)....................................................................................................................26 10 Review progress of development of guidelines for phytobenthos sampling with a view to publication in the ICES TIMES series............................................................26 11 Review the state of benthic communities at seamounts as presented by MarEco and other projects and provide input to [WGDEC] in relation to the provision of advice to OSPAR on the evidence for the threats to, and/or decline in, seamount habitats and their populations in the OSPAR regions where seamounts occur [OSPAR 2005/3] ............................................................................................................................27 12 Review of the environmental studies at wind energy locations at sea and make recommendations on means for a harmonized European approach to benthic ecosystem studies ...........................................................................................................28