This is the R implementation of the HELCOM indicator 'Cumulative impact from physical pressures on benthic biotopes'.
The benthic biotopes in the Baltic Sea are negatively affected by several human activities causing physical disturbance to the seafloor, potentially leading to physical or functional loss of biotope areas. The indicator 'Cumulative impact from physical pressures on benthic biotopes' (CumI) performs a predictive evaluation of the cumulative (i.e. aggregated) potential impact of several anthropogenic physical pressures on the benthic biotopes in the Baltic Sea. In this sense, the CumI performs a risk analysis, assessing the risk for a certain change in the environmental state. The CumI is thus addressing the ecological objective of a 'Natural distribution, occurrence and quality of habitsts and associated communities' within the BSAP segment of 'Biodiversity' (Baltic Sea Action Plan). It further addresses assessment criterion D6C3 of the Marine Strategy FrameworkDirective (MSFD) that examines the extent of broad benthic habitats (BHTs, based on EUSeaMap 2021) adversely affected by physical disturbance. The benthic biotopes addressed by the CumI refer to the benthic abiotic habitats including their associated biological benthos communities.
- BSAP: Baltic Sea Action Plan. A plan by the Regional Sea Convention HELCOM with an ambitious and comprehensive regional programme of measures and action for a healthy marine environment.
- MSFD: Marine Strategy Framework Directive. An EU directive to protect the marine environment across Europe more effectively, including a set of detailed criteria and methodological standards building in the idea of an ecosystem-based approach.
The CumI is implemented as a R script and document in the form of an Rmarkdown document. You can run the script from that document and thus run the CumI assessment of the Baltic Sea.
... to be continued ...