Ecosystem services provided by the Baltic Sea ... - Naturvårdsverket

SWEDISH ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
Report 5873 • Ecosystem services provided by the Baltic Sea and Skagerrak
Economic Marine Information
Figure 7. Marine nature reserves/ Marine Natura 2000 (red) as well as areas reported to the
OSPAR (blue, striped), HELCOM (orange) and Ramsar (green). Source: Naturvårdsverket
2007(82).
SEPA, which may be of value for habitat maintenance, include sustainable use of
the coastal environment and restoration of littoral environment.
While legislative protection of marine habitat is important, it offers little or no
protection against threats such as eutrophication, pollution, invasive alien species,
acidification, and climate change. One of the key concepts in ecological studies is
the idea that a disturbance in one area can lead to serious consequences elsewhere.
The interconnectedness of components in the environment thus makes it impossible
for any event or phenomenon to be truly isolated. From this follows that no marine
protected area functions as an isolated entity; in reality it is intricately connected to
surrounding habitats. In this way coastal environments are affected by pelagic waters
and vice versa. The introduction of the ecosystem approach as a new paradigm
to achieve sound management (83), will hopefully take these complexities into
account, not to mention the continuous impact by societal and economic dependence
on the marine environment. Conclusively, the protection and restoration of
habitats is crucial to prevent further degradation of and damage to habitats, habitatbuilding
species and ecological processes, following the precautionary principle.
Examples of knowledge gaps
While currently increasing our knowledge about the distribution of marine habitats,
it is important that we learn more about their particular function. Although we may
have reached the conclusion that habitats and the ecosystem are interlinked, we
might not know enough of the processes linking them to use this for hands on management.
Some important questions to be answered are:
Which habitats or habitat-forming species play a role in the growth and reproduction
of endangered or commercially important species?
Which habitats maintain processes essential for biodiversity and ecosystem
function?
What is the role of habitat or ecosystem diversity and how are different
habitats and, on a larger scale, ecosystems connected?
Where essential habitats have already been identified, continuous research into
how to best protect and restore them remains central.
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