The Marine Life Information Network® for Britain and Ireland (MarLIN) Description, temporal variation, sensitivity and monitoring of important marine biotopes in Wales. Volume 1. Background to biotope research. Report to Cyngor Cefn Gwlad Cymru / Countryside Council for Wales Contract no. FC 73-023-255G Dr Harvey Tyler-Walters, Charlotte Marshall, & Dr Keith Hiscock With contributions from: Georgina Budd, Jacqueline Hill, Will Rayment and Angus Jackson DRAFT / FINAL REPORT January 2005 Reference: Tyler-Walters, H., Marshall, C., Hiscock, K., Hill, J.M., Budd, G.C., Rayment, W.J. & Jackson, A., 2005. Description, temporal variation, sensitivity and monitoring of important marine biotopes in Wales. Report to Cyngor Cefn Gwlad Cymru / Countryside Council for Wales from the Marine Life Information Network (MarLIN). Marine Biological Association of the UK, Plymouth. [CCW Contract no. FC 73-023-255G] Description, sensitivity and monitoring of important Welsh biotopes Background 2 Description, sensitivity and monitoring of important Welsh biotopes Background The Marine Life Information Network® for Britain and Ireland (MarLIN) Description, temporal variation, sensitivity and monitoring of important marine biotopes in Wales. Contents Executive summary ............................................................................................................................................5 Crynodeb gweithredol ........................................................................................................................................6 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................................7 1.1 Background to report ........................................................................................................................7 1.2 Structure of the report .......................................................................................................................7 1.3 Welsh important biotopes .................................................................................................................7 2. Biology and Sensitivity Key Information reviews .....................................................................................9 2.1 Biotope key information reviews......................................................................................................9 2.1.1 Standard terms and definitions .....................................................................................................9 2.1.2 Representative biotopes................................................................................................................9 2.1.3 Biotope reviews in report format................................................................................................10 2.2 Sensitivity assessment rationale......................................................................................................10 2.2.1 Benchmarks ................................................................................................................................10 2.2.2 Sensitivity assessments...............................................................................................................11 2.2.3 Assumptions ...............................................................................................................................11 2.2.4 Interpretation of sensitivity assessments ....................................................................................11 2.3 Summary of biotope intolerance and sensitivity.............................................................................12 2.4 Disclaimer.......................................................................................................................................12 3. Monitoring and surveillance options........................................................................................................12 3.1 ‘Target condition’ ...........................................................................................................................21 3.2 Identifying change with time ..........................................................................................................21 3.3 Scientific and economic options .....................................................................................................23 4. References ................................................................................................................................................31 Acknowledgements ..........................................................................................................................................37 3 Description, sensitivity and monitoring of important Welsh biotopes Background List of tables Table 1. Tranche 1 biotope reviews researched under CCW contract FC 73-02-255G................................... 8 Table 2. Welsh important communities, and specialized biotopes already available on the MarLIN website, completed prior to contract........................................................................................................................ 8 Table 3. Intolerance of the research important Welsh biotopes to change in environmental factors (H=High, I= Intermediate, L= Low, T = Tolerant, T* =Tolerant*, NR= Not relevant, * = Insufficient information). ................................................................................................................................................................. 13 Table 4. Sensitivity of the research important Welsh biotopes to change in environmental factors (VH =Very high, H=High, M= Moderate, L= Low, VL= Very low, NS= Not sensitive, NS* =Not sensitive*, NR= Not relevant, * = Insufficient information)..................................................................................... 17 Table 5. Procedural guidelines for monitoring (Davies et al. 2001).............................................................. 22 Table 6. Summary of likely most suitable options for monitoring. ............................................................... 24 List of Appendices Appendix 1. Contents of the biotope key information reviews ..................................................................... 39 Appendix 2. Glossaries.................................................................................................................................. 41 Appendix 3. Sensitivity assessment rationale - a summary........................................................................... 69 Appendix 4. Benchmarks for the assessment of intolerance, recoverability and sensitivity ......................... 81 4 Description, sensitivity and monitoring of important Welsh biotopes Background The Marine Life Information Network® for Britain and Ireland (MarLIN) Description, temporal variation, sensitivity and monitoring of important marine biotopes in Wales. Executive summary The Marine Life Information Network (MarLIN) has reviewed the biology and ecology of numerous marine species and biotopes, and assessed their likely sensitivity to environmental perturbation using the criteria described in Hiscock et al. (1999) and Tyler-Walters et al. (2001) between 1999 and 2002. The MarLIN Web site and database include biology and sensitivity key information reviews of ca 150 priority marine species (i.e. either keystone, characteristic of typical marine communities, or of marine natural heritage importance), together with reviews of 117 biotopes identified within interest features of marine SACs around the coasts of England and Scotland. This research forms the largest body of collated knowledge on marine species and habitat sensitivity in the United Kingdom. However, the original emphasis of the research was English and Scottish marine biotopes and, as a result, several Welsh marine biotopes, especially Welsh biotopes of marine natural heritage importance, were missing from the MarLIN Biology and Sensitivity Key Information Sub-programme and Web site. The report that follows presents the results of the first tranche of ten reviews of important Welsh biotopes, researched by the MarLIN team under contract to the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW) (contract no. FC 73-02-255G). The biotope reviews are available via the MarLIN Web site and are reproduced in this report, together with another fifteen important Welsh biotopes that were researched prior to 2002. The report includes: • introductory text; • background to the design and structure of the MarLIN biotope reviews; • description and explanation of MarLIN’s sensitivity assessment rationale; • notes for interpretation, together with supporting information in the appendices; • review of monitoring and surveillance techniques relevant to the important Welsh biotopes; • biotope reviews of fifteen littoral biotopes of importance in Wales, and • biotope reviews of ten infralittoral biotopes of importance in Wales. Where available, the reviews presented in the report include information concerning regional variation in biotope communities within Wales. The report is divided into three volumes, as follows: • Volume 1. Background to the report, explanatory text, summary of the results, the review of monitoring, bibliography and supporting appendices. • Volume 2. ‘Littoral’ biotope reviews. • Volume 3. ‘Infralittoral’ biotope reviews. The MarLIN Biology and Sensitivity Key Information Reviews were designed to be read over the World Wide Web. The enclosed reviews, therefore,