BSEP116B Biodiversity in the Baltic Sea - Helcom

Mud-sandflat, Greifswald Lagoon, Germany
28
Boreal Baltic narrow inlets are only reported
from Finland and Sweden. In both cases, the conservation
status is inadequate. For the implementation
of the EU Habitats Directive, they are only
assessed in the EU Boreal Region. According to
HELCOM (1998), they are assessed as endangered
in Finland and Sweden.
Country-by-country assessment
In Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the conservation
status of all habitat types reported under
the Habitats Directive is favourable. In Denmark,
Finland, Germany and Sweden, the conservation
status is predominantly unfavourable. In Poland,
the conservation status of reported natural
habitat types is inadequate in three and favourable
in two habitat types.
For Russia, it is only possible to consider the
HELCOM Red List of Biotopes because the Russian
Federation is not an EU Member State. The threat
categories for most biotope types and complexes in
Russian waters in and off the Kaliningrad oblast are
between endangered and heavily endangered (2–3),
whereas in the Gulf of Finland many are presumably
in the category Not Endangered at present.
In conclusion, the conservation status of the
natural habitat types in the HELCOM List and in
Annex 1 of the Habitats Directive is assessed very
differently by HELCOM EU Member States. Table
2.2.1 makes it clear that some countries judge
habitat types as being in a favourable conservation
status even though they are threatened
according to the HELCOM List of Biotopes. Moreover,
it is obvious that some HELCOM EU countries
have reported some natural habitat types
as being not present in their marine or coastal
area to the European Commission, although they
have been assessed as being threatened in their
country according to HELCOM (1998).
Assessment of other habitats/biotopes
In addition to the above Natura 2000 natural
habitat types, the HELCOM List (HELCOM 2007b)
includes the following habitat/biotope types: (1)
Offshore (deep) waters below the halocline, (2)
Shell gravel bottoms, (3) Seagrass beds, (4) Macrophyte
meadows and beds, (5) Gravel bottoms with
Ophelia species, (6) Maerl beds, and (7) Sea pens
with burrowing megafauna.
Offshore (deep) waters below the halocline occur
in all main basins of the Baltic Sea area. They are
threatened where they appear and are assessed for
the whole area as heavily endangered (HELCOM
1998). Seagrass beds with Zostera marina occur
in the Baltic Sea area south of the Bothnian Sea,
whereas seagrass beds with Zostera noltii are
restricted to the southwestern and southern parts
of the Baltic Sea area including the Bay of Mecklenburg
and the Gulf of Gdansk. Seagrass beds are
among the most threatened marine biotopes in the
Baltic Sea area. They are part of the heavily endangered
HELCOM biotope type ‘Level sandy bottoms
dominated by macrophyte vegetation‘ (HELCOM
1998). Macrophyte meadows and beds (other than
seagrass beds) occur on soft and hard bottoms
in the whole Baltic Sea area (HELCOM 2007b).
From a Baltic-wide perspective, the exact status of
threat and/or decline is not yet known. However
the biotope is threatened and declining where it
appears, because characteristic species are not
recorded at the same water depths as before. They