4. Assessing the State of the North-East Atlantic

Why collaborate?

Assessment of the marine environment on the scale of the North-East Atlantic requires countries to collaborate, since neither marine life nor pollution recognise national boundaries. The collaboration on the 2023 Quality Status Report (QSR 2023) has led to a holistic assessment of the North-East Atlantic marine environment which applies a conceptual framework that considers Drivers, Activities, Pressures, State, Impact and Responses (DAPSIR), in order to better understand the relationships between people’s actions and the environment. The OSPAR Contracting Parties have committed to work together to provide the science base needed for more effective policy responses and a better understanding of trade-offs and synergies. As “blue economies” expand, OSPAR Contracting Parties will be better able to quantify and reduce risk, and more prepared to increase the resilience of their coastal and marine systems in the face of climate change and ocean acidification. These decadal assessments facilitate the creation of regionally coherent measures to protect species and habitats, founded on harmonised policies that promote effective ecosystem-based management. In the future, as OSPAR Contracting Parties’ reliance on healthy seas increases with their need for more marine goods and services, their investment in understanding pressures and impacts, taking steps to prevent or mitigate them, and working together to improve the condition of shared seas will come to be seen as worthwhile. Working together enables the development of effective solutions to the problems identified in the NEAES 2030, to which all Contracting Parties are committed. 

The purpose of science-based assessments

Scientific knowledge is the indispensable basis for sustainable use of the marine environment, and as such it lies at the core of OSPAR’s mandate. Science-based assessments using agreed approaches and indicators enable clear tracking of environmental conditions, the implications of those conditions for societies, and the extent to which management responses lead to intended outcomes. Given the centrality of healthy marine ecosystems to the wellbeing of people living in the OSPAR Contracting Parties, such periodic assessment is essential for knowing where countries have been, where they are now, and their expected direction of travel in coming years in terms of the ability of their seas to provide essential goods and services. Assessment also enables better understanding of how conditions in the OSPAR Maritime Area influence the global ocean and life on the planet, and vice versa.

Scientific assessments are at the core of the Quality Status Reports undertaken each decade by OSPAR. The QSR 2023 is an ambitious collective endeavour involving the whole OSPAR network. The 16 Contracting Parties to the OSPAR Convention are the primary contributors, nominating more than 400 experts to lead the delivery of the various assessments that form the scientific bedrock of the QSR. The contributions of OSPAR Observers – ranging from intergovernmental partner organisations to blue economy and environmental non-governmental organisations - help to close any information gaps, a crucial aspect of this assessment and monitoring process. The OSPAR Secretariat oversees the coordination of the process.

Behind the QSR 2023

The overarching purpose in conducting the assessments that underlie the QSR 2023 is to broaden understanding of the state of the North-East Atlantic and begin to better understand the extent to which management measures undertaken by Contracting Parties have contributed to its current state. The QSR 2023 will inform the delivery of the NEAES 2030 and also, for those Contracting Parties which are EU Member States, the EU’s Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). OSPAR acts as a coordination platform in the North-East Atlantic for regional implementation of the MSFD, which aims to achieve Good Environmental Status (GES) in European marine environments, as well as a platform for the coordination of other national frameworks. The characteristics of GES are determined by individual EU member states, based on criteria, threshold values and methodological standards set regionally or at European Union level. The Norwegian, Icelandic, United Kingdom, Greenlandic and Faroese marine areas are not covered by the MSFD.

The QSR 2023 brings together more than 120 thematic assessments, common indicator assessments, feeder reports, and other assessments. Many of these assessments of the OSPAR Maritime Area, with its five Regions (Arctic Waters, Greater North Sea, Celtic Seas, Bay of Biscay and Iberian Coast, and Wider Atlantic) and many sub-regions, are indicator-based, their findings linked to data and map services. These assessments cover the period between the last QSR (QSR 2010) and the present one, in all covering the years from 2009 to 2021, and incorporate data generated over various timespans.

The impacts of management measures designed to protect the North-East Atlantic often require years to detect because changes in human activity, although potentially significant, may elicit only a slow response from the marine ecosystem. Moreover, natural variations occur continuously across the North-East Atlantic. In this context, there is a need for continuous assessment and regular updating, thereby ensuring that the best possible advice is available to policymakers.

Since the publication of the QSR 2010 , OSPAR has been working with other Regional Seas Conventions and the European Commission to develop common and widely applicable assessment tools; many new indicators of the state of the marine environment have been identified and assessment methods developed, while other long-standing assessment methods have matured.

The QSR 2023 builds on previous QSRs as well as the 2017 Intermediate Assessment , all of which detailed human pressures on the North-East Atlantic, their effects and their implications for the biological diversity of this marine area. The numbers and participation levels of the expert groups working across all assessments has increased dramatically since 2000, when OSPAR first attempted a Maritime Area-wide systematic assessment. Some of the indicators of pressure reported in the QSR 2010 were refined in the 2017 Intermediate Assessment in order to include a significant regional component. Many of the indicators for the QSR 2023 are new, including ‘Marine mammal by-catch’ and ‘Distribution of reported impulsive noise’, and OSPAR has been further progressing 31 indicators covering topics such as the effects of hazardous substances, biological diversity, marine birds and fish communities (see “OSPAR tackles cumulative pressures”). OSPAR recognises the need to continually improve its ability to assess the marine environment through the use of indicators and to facilitate the most effective management of the human activities impacting the North-East Atlantic. These assessments also highlight knowledge gaps, which will be listed in the OSPAR Science Agenda when the ongoing update is complete, thereby inspiring scientists to conduct research that supports the improvement of future QSRs.

Thematic Assessments: applying a holistic approach

The marine environment is a complex system. Considering ecosystem components or the pressures impacting them cannot be done in isolation. Understanding, assessing, and managing this system requires the application of a holistic approach that recognises its complexity, taking into account the diverse range of users and uses of its resources and considering the environmental, economic and social impacts of all human activities. Better understanding supports optimal marine management and sustainable use, helping to guarantee that marine ecosystems will continue to provide a range of ecosystem services that benefit society. To support this comprehensive approach, a specific category of assessment has been developed and implemented for the QSR 2023: Thematic Assessments. These are a new type of assessment product which aims to provide a high-level, holistic view of a specific issue based on the findings and results of a number of underlying assessments. There are 15 thematic assessments, each addressing a different topic, as shown below.

The thematic assessments follow the DAPSIR (Drivers-Activities-Pressures-State-Impacts-Responses) framework to describe, compare, and quantify relationships, as follows: Drivers of basic human needs require Activities, which lead to Pressures, which can result in changes in the State (environmental impact) of the natural system, which lead to Impacts on Ecosystem Services, which in turn influence the Drivers. These interrelationships require management Responses (as measures) (Figure 4.1). Using standard terms and definitions for the DAPSIR components in all the thematic assessments provides for integration, clear narratives and compliance with regulatory requirements.

While it is clear that pressures can cause changes in ecosystem service delivery, the reverse is also true. Changes in the provision of ecosystem services have an impact on the societal drivers of activities that exert pressures on biodiversity and ecological components. The DAPSIR framework therefore also enables a better understanding of how ecosystem services connect with drivers, so as to close the loop in the DAPSIR cycle. That understanding enables decision-makers to take steps to address not only pressures but also the drivers behind them.

Since pressures on marine systems rarely occur in isolation, each thematic assessment for the QSR 2023 has also considered the cumulative effects of pressures (and the activities and drivers that create them) on marine ecosystems and ecosystem services. Five thematic assessments of biodiversity components (marine birds, marine mammals, fish, benthic habitats and pelagic habitats) have assessed the relative importance of pressures from human activities, in terms of their spatial extent, frequency of occurrence and likely degree of impact, and considered their collective impact on ecosystem services as well as how they interact. Spreading the many findings across numerous assessments in an integrated fashion provides the evidence base for effective and holistic management of the marine environment. Following the evidence in order to effectively mitigate impacts will ensure that the ecosystem services and values upon which societies depend are not diminished, even as uses of the OSPAR Maritime Area are scaled up in the context of the future blue economy. Effective responses, consideration of cumulative effects, and management that stays true to the ecosystem approach will ensure that the North-East Atlantic marine ecosystems continue to deliver valuable goods and services for years to come.