WKTRADE3 developed methods and data flows that allow the assessment of seabed abrasion, economic value, weight of landings and impact on the seabed of mobile bottom-contacting gears in European waters by MSFD broad habitat type and métier. This report provides regional-specific assessments of pressure and impact of bottom-contacting fishing gears on the seabed and of trade-offs between fisheries and seafloor habitat protection. We also present an analysis of spatial and temporal variation in core fishing grounds, and review and evaluate any potential consequences to the ecosystem that could arise, if greater areas of seabed are left undisturbed by bottom fishing. An attempt was made to disaggregate variable costs from the STECF Annual Economic Report out on VMS data. The assessment covers four MSFD (sub)regions, 22 sub-divisions and four countries from Mediterranean and Black Sea. It is spanning from Norway and Finland in the North to Bulgaria in the south. For all areas, the surface abrasion data were avail-able for at least one year. For the Greater North Sea and Baltic Sea, it was possible to perform a complete analysis, while in the other regions data availability was more limited and it was not possible to assess the seabed impact. The impact of mobile bottom-contacting gears (MBCG) on seabed biota was assessed using two different methods and the percentage unfished c-squares was used as an indicator of fishing pressure. The average fishing intensity varies widely between habitat types and regions. Landings per swept area, and landings per unit impact also vary be-tween métiers by an order of magnitude. Effort reductions resulted in different responses between the two impact indicators and the fishing pressure indicator. For PD, the reduction of effort resulted in proportional reductions between benthic impact and fisheries value. For the two other indicators, L1 and percentage area unfished, the relationship between the weight/value and the indicators was not linear, meaning that larger improvements in the indicators could be obtained at small decreases in fisheries landings. There are many other direct and indirect benefits to eco-system and ecosystem services that could result from a reduction in MBCG, but currently the methods and data are not available to quantify these at the required spatial scale. Collectively, ICES expert groups produce many valuable reports each year. Some of these are very long (up to 1000 pp.). As much of the target audience will not have time to read the whole of each document, it is imperative that reports start with a clear, succinct, and factual executive summary that presents the key issues addressed in the main report.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2021
We present an updated, subjective list of the extant, non-marine ostracod genera and species of the world, with their distributions in the major zoogeographical regions, as well as a list of the genera in their present hierarchical taxonomic positions. The list includes all taxa described and taxonomic alterations made up to 1 July 2018. Taxonomic changes include 17 new combinations, 5 new names, 1 emended specific name and 11 new synonymies (1 tribe, 4 genera, 6 species). Taking into account the recognized synonymies, there are presently 2330 subjective species of non-marine ostracods in 270 genera. The most diverse family in non-marine habitats is the Cyprididae, comprising 43.2% of all species, followed by the Candonidae (29.0%), Entocytheridae (9.1%) and the Limnocytheridae (7.0%). An additional 13 families comprise the remaining 11.8% of described species. The Palaearctic zoogeographical region has the greatest number of described species (799), followed by the Afrotropical region with 453 species and the Nearctic region with 439 species. The Australasian and Neotropical regions each have 328 and 333 recorded species, respectively, while the Oriental region has 271. The vast majority of non-marine ostracods (89.8%) are endemic to one zoogeographical region, while only six species are found in six or more regions. We also present an additional list with ‘uncertain species’, which have neither been redescribed nor re-assessed since 1912, and which are excluded from the main list; a list of taxonomic changes presented in the present paper; a table with the number of species and % per family; and a table with numbers of new species described in the 20-year period between 1998 and 2017 per zoogeographical region. Two figures visualize the total number of species and endemic species per zoogeographical region, and the numbers of new species descriptions per decade for all families and the three largest families since 1770, respectively.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2019
