Interim report of the HELCOM CORESET project

sitive, large-sized and long-lived species did not tolerate the altered consitions. At more advanced stages
of organic enrichment, the diversity starts to decline. The single strongest factor infl uencing the benthic
diversity is, however, hypoxia.
Figure 2.19. The reference values, good-moderate border and assessment 2001-2006 of the offshore
macrozoobenthos indicator. Source: HELCOM 2009.
The national indices and the used sieve size for sampling
– Finland: Brackish Water Benthic Index BBI (BQI and shannon), 5 pooled Ekman grabs, 0.5 mm sieve.
– Reference: Perus et al. (2007).
– Estonia: ZKI (biomass based), 0.25 mm sieve (Anon. 2007)
– Latvia: BQI, Van Veen, 0.5 mm sieve
– Lithuania: BQI (and number of species per sample), Van Veen, 0.5 mm sieve
– Poland: B, 1 mm sieve(?)
– Germany: MarBit, vanVeen, 1 mm sieve, Kautsky frame, 1 mm sieve
– Denmark: DKI v2 (salinity corrected), Van Veen and Haps, 1 mm sieve
– Reference: Josefson et al. 2009
– Sweden: Benthic Quality Index BQI, Van Veen, 1 mm sieve
– Reference: Blomqvist et al. (2007)
Intercalibration of the coastal indices in the Baltic GIG
An overview of the intercalibration process is described in Carletti and Heiskanen (2009). The report
describes all the national methods, gives background information of their responses to anthropogenic
pressures, compares them to each other and describes the target setting procedures and the targets themselves.
References
Anon. 2007. Report of the Estonian assessment method and the preliminary evaluation of the comparability
with methods from other Baltic Sea countries is presented in the Baltic Sea Milestone Report 6.
Quality element: Benthic Fauna. Version 16 June 2006. Rev. 3, 30 March 2007. Available at: http://
circa.europa.eu/Public/irc/jrc/jrc_eewai/library, in folder: GIG Milestone Reports
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