Testing criteria for assessing ‘national importance’ of marine species, biotopes (habitats) and landscapes. Dr Keith Hiscock Hugh Jones Contract no. F90-01-681 Report to the Joint Nature Conservation Committee CONSULTATIVE REPORT January 2004 Reference: Hiscock, K. & Jones, H., 2004. Testing criteria for assessing ‘national importance’ of marine species, biotopes (habitats) and landscapes. Report to Joint Nature Conservation Committee from the Marine Life Information Network (MarLIN). Plymouth: Marine Biological Association of the UK. [JNCC Contract no. F90-01-681] Testing criteria for assessing ‘national importance’ of marine species, biotopes (habitats) and landscapes 2 Testing criteria for assessing ‘national importance’ of marine species, biotopes (habitats) and landscapes Testing criteria for assessing ‘national importance’ of marine species, biotopes (habitats) and landscapes Keith Hiscock and Hugh Jones Marine Life Information Network (MarLIN), Marine Biological Association, Plymouth PL1 2PB Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................3 Methods .................................................................................................................................5 Data and information relevant to the criteria..........................................................................5 Results of the reviews............................................................................................................5 Comments on application of criteria ......................................................................................5 References.............................................................................................................................8 Appendices Appendix 1. Results of applying the criteria to the 9 marine features, and comments related to criterion results. ..............................................................................................9 Appendix 2. Draft criteria for the identification of nationally important marine features (Connor et al., 2002 including suggested modifications in Lieberknecht et al., 2003).11 Appendix 3. Species previously assessed for national importance. ..................................15 Dossier The allis shad Alosa alosa (Linnaeus, 1758).......................................................................17 Bearded Anotrichium Anotrichium barbatum (C Agardh) Nägeli, 1862...............................21 The fan mussel Atrina fragilis (Pennant, 1777) ...................................................................25 Dipturus oxyrinchus (Linnaeus, 1758) (Long-nosed skate).................................................29 Deep Sponge Communities (CR.HCR.DpSp) .....................................................................33 Mixed kelp with foliose red seaweeds, sponges and ascidians on sheltered, tide-swept infralittoral rock (IR.HIR.Ksed.XKT)..............................................................................39 Intertidal mussel beds (Mixed sediment shores with mussels) (LS.LMX.LMus) .................43 Deep water mud basins (Marine Landscape)......................................................................47 Sea lochs (Marine Landscape) ............................................................................................53 Introduction A Review of Marine Nature Conservation (RMNC) was established in 1999 by Defra to examine how effectively the UK system for protecting nature conservation in the marine environment is working and make proposals for improvements. As a part of the Review, work has been undertaken to develop criteria to define nationally important marine features (habitats, species, marine landscapes). The criteria are described in Appendix 1 3 Testing criteria for assessing ‘national importance’ of marine species, biotopes (habitats) and landscapes and a full description is given in Lieberknecht et al. (2003) available from: www.jncc.gov.uk/marine/irishsea_pilot/pdfs/consultation_Sept2003/ Marine_landscapes.pdf. A provisional list of 240 nationally important marine features has been prepared by JNCC from existing endangered or protected species lists and expert opinion. In order to test the applicability of the criteria, they have already been applied to a list of 16 features (Appendix 2 summarizes the outcome). For each feature, a dossier was created, drawing together information relating to each criterion and reaching a verdict on whether the feature meets each criterion or otherwise. The criteria have been tested, resulting in some suggestions as to how to modify the criteria to make them more useable (Lieberknecht et al. 2003). However, the test list of features was very short, and the work described here extends the testing for a further nine features. The Marine Life Information Network (MarLIN) programme at the Marine Biological Association (MBA) was commissioned to undertaken the further testing on nine features: • Fan mussel Atrina fragilis (species); • Allis shad Alosa alosa (species); • Long-nose skate Dipturus oxyrinchus (species); • Bearded Anotrichium Anotrichium barbatum (species); • Tide-swept kelp and seaweed communities (IR.HIR.KSed.XKT) (habitat); • Deep sponge communities (CR.HCR.DpSp) (habitat); • Intertidal mussel beds (LS.LMX.LMus) (habitat); • Sea lochs (marine landscape), and • Deep-water mud basins (marine landscape). The criteria to be applied were: 1. Proportional importance (Global importance; Regional importance); 2. Rarity; 3. Decline, and 4. Threat of significant decline. An Overall Verdict of ‘National Importance’ was then to be determined. The work included: 1. Search for data and information relevant to the criteria from the literature. 2. Complete dossiers on each feature including reaching a verdict for each criterion. 3. Add descriptive text, including a section on likely sensitivity to human activities. 4. Produce a report that considers further, based on experience gained in applying criteria, whether any changes should be proposed that would make the importance criteria more effective in identifying species and habitats for protection. 5. Completed the full report and dossiers by 7 January 2004. 4 Testing criteria for assessing ‘national importance’ of marine species, biotopes (habitats) and landscapes Methods Data and information relevant to the criteria Basic information Information that provides a general background describing the marine landscape, habitat or species has been obtained from descriptions in text books, in the JNCC marine biotopes classification and from research undertaken for MarLIN Biology and Sensitivity Key Information Reviews. Reported distribution Data on distribution and abundance of species around the UK and in the north-east Atlantic has been accessed from readily available sources including text books, relevant Web sites and through contact with experts or data-holding organizations. Distributional data has been mapped as ‘Known and expected distribution’ onto outline maps of Britain and Ireland and of the north-east Atlantic and Mediterranean. Biology and sensitivity key information has been accessed from the MarLIN Biology and Sensitivity Key Information pages wherever possible. Where information has not been researched by MarLIN, library research has been undertaken relevant to the specific factors associated with human activities that are believed to have an adverse impact on the feature. For the purposes of preparing the dossiers in this exercise, detailed collation of sensitivity information for landscape features has not been undertaken but inspection of MarLIN sensitivity reviews has been carried out. Application of the criteria for special importance The criteria are those being developed by JNCC and described in Lieberknecht et al. (2003). Distributional records (to identify ‘Proportional importance’ and ‘Rarity’) have been obtained from various sources including text books, and relevant Web resources including www.jncc.gov.uk/mermaid and additional information collected by MarLIN. Application of the criteria for threatened/declined features Information on decline is usually descriptive rather than quantitative in the case of marine species. Best possible information has been obtained. Results of the reviews The dossiers prepared for each test species are presented at the end of this report. They are ‘stand-alone’ and are each separately numbered. Comments on application of criteria Introduction. The criteria applied in the exercise described here have been carefully thought-through to be a practical but pragmatic approach to producing measures that can be used in a defensible way to prioritize action to protect marine features that may be threatened by human activities. It has been possible in the exercise described here to apply the criteria but rarely with quantitative information so that the phrase ‘most likely’ has had to be frequently used. ‘Rarity’ is a particularly difficult criterion to apply although one where quantitative information (on the number of 10 km x 10 km squares within the 3 mile limit of territorial seas occupied by a feature) can be used. The difficulty in using the criterion is because of: Application to a relevant geographical area. “The UK” is a political entity and not one that makes sense biogeographically. ‘Great Britain’ is a reasonable entity to consider as it does not join to adjacent biogeographically similar areas that are different countries. ‘Northern Ireland’, a part of