Baltic Sea GIG Status April 2009 By Henning Karup - GIG co-ordinator

Work in 2008 17 June 2008 7th Baltic Sea GIG meeting held in Copenhagen, Denmark. Discussion and planning of the work in the second intercalibration round. 19 - 20 November 2008 8th Baltic Sea GIG meeting incl. expert group meetings held in Riga, Latvia. Milestone 1: Work programme for the GIG work was agreed Milestone 2: Work on a revised typology was discussed. Further work needed Milestone 3: An agreed work plan for each of the expert groups

Phytoplankton First steps: Compile information on: Phytoplankton metrics used in assessments or tested in the member states (e.g. total biovolume, biovolume of cyanobacteria or chlorophytes in Germany, bloom frequency in Denmark, total biomass in Finland/Sweden) If some metrics have been tested and rejected it should be briefly described why it isn’t used. Indicator species? (e.g. Nodularia or Aphanizomenon) National stations with phytoplankton data – possible intercalibration sites (station coordinates and coordinate systems) Useful references

Time table for work in phytoplankton expert group: 2008 2009 2010 2011 N D J F M A S O Collect information on phytoplankton stations   15th Compile data on metrics used or tested – and distribute references Agreement on metrics to be tested Test other metrics with national datasets Evaluate national tests Intercalibration - if tests were successful Evaluation of possible intercalibration Develop new metrics / define indicator species Test and intercalibrate new metrics Reporting Final report Baltic Gig meeting X

Macrophytes Overview of possibilities for inter-calibration Metric DK EE DE FI LV LT PL SE Macroalgae - Total cover X ? X(few) - Depth limit of selected species X (stone reefs) - Depth limit of Fucus vesiculosus - Depth limit of Furcellaria - Fraction of opportunists (% biomass) - Number of late-successional species Angiosperms - Depth limit of eelgrass - Cover of eelgrass - Composition of angiosperms X(?) Physico-chemistry (nutrients, light, salinity)* X* X (But not for all stations) X (but not for all stations X (But not always at relevant places and times)

Macrophytes May 2009: Baltic GiG meeting: We need to decide on which intercalibrations we go for. Participants of the ALGAMONY and MOPODECO have agreed to present the preliminary results of their analyses so that we get a better idea of the possibilities and perspectives of joining this intercalibration. Before the GIG meeting Denmark sends the ALGAMONY/MOPODECO templates for data compilation to Baltic GIG partners so that everybody can check whether they would be able to supply data for this common intercalibration and whether they for the same areas have assessed ecological status using their own metric. Possibilities for bilateral intercalibrations should be discussed based on the data overviews provided by this document and wishes from GIG partners. Presentations of ideas are welcome! Summer 2009: Data sets to be used in intercalibrations are exchanged. If we join the MOPODECO/ALGAMONY intercalibration, GIG partners send data compilations according to ALGAMONY/MOPODECO templates to Denmark. Autumn 2009: Intercalibration-data analyses take place. The next step of ALGAMONY/MOPODECO analyses is also planned for this period.

Benthic Fauna

Planned meetings 2009 - 2011 Date Host May 2009 Sweden September 2009 Germany February 2010 Lithuania September 2010 Poland March 2011 Denmark