Suchergebnisse

The Norwegian government will develop a management plan for the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. Mapping of the data requirement related to the interaction between land, coast and ocean and identification of specially vulnerable and valuable areas are included. The project focuses on discharges and their impact on the environment in the Norwegian part of the North Sea (part of OSPAR's Region II, Greater North Sea), however information from other countries and regions within the North Sea is also included. OSPAR is developing a Quality Status Report for the North Sea area entitled the QSR 2010. QSR 2010 is based on regional assessments while this report is a pilot project aiming to identify additional data required for an upcoming management plan for the North Sea. OSPAR QSR 2010 will develop an assessment for the North Sea, however this will probably not be area specific enough to fulfil the needs for a management plan. In addition to the QSR 2010 there will be a need to develop regional plans based on collaboration between the NS countries. EUs directives, conventions and agencies supply a network of laws, directives and agreements relevant for a future management plan for the North Sea. Relevant sources of data and overall estimates of the amounts of nutrients and pollutants discharged from Norwegian sources into the North Sea are presented. An assessment of the knowledge status is given for individual sectors, with a particular focus on areas where present knowledge or data availability is considered insufficient. Effects of discharges on vulnerable and valuable areas are discussed in the context available data from monitoring and future needs to fill the gaps.

The magnitude and urgency of the biodiversity crisis is widely recognized within scientific and political organizations. However, a lack of integrated measures for biodiversity has greatly constrained the national and international response to the biodiversity crisis. Thus, integrated biodiversity indexes will greatly facilitate information transfer from science toward other areas of human society. The Nature Index framework samples scientific information on biodiversity from a variety of sources, synthesizes this information, and then transmits it in a simplified form to environmental managers, policymakers, and the public. The Nature Index optimizes information use by incorporating expert judgment, monitoring-based estimates, and model-based estimates. The index relies on a network of scientific experts, each of whom is responsible for one or more biodiversity indicators. The resulting set of indicators is supposed to represent the best available knowledge on the state of biodiversity and ecosystems in any given area. The value of each indicator is scaled relative to a reference state, i.e., a predicted value assessed by each expert for a hypothetical undisturbed or sustainably managed ecosystem. Scaled indicator values can be aggregated or disaggregated over different axes representing spatiotemporal dimensions or thematic groups. A range of scaling models can be applied to allow for different ways of interpreting the reference states, e.g., optimal situations or minimum sustainable levels. Statistical testing for differences in space or time can be implemented using Monte-Carlo simulations. This study presents the Nature Index framework and details its implementation in Norway. The results suggest that the framework is a functional, efficient, and pragmatic approach for gathering and synthesizing scientific knowledge on the state of biodiversity in any marine or terrestrial ecosystem and has general applicability worldwide.