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Indicator Assessment
Decapod abundance in the central North Sea 1950-2005
In the North Sea, work on pelagic phenology has shown that plankton communities, including fish larvae, are very sensitive to regional climate warming with the response to warming varying between trophic levels and functional groups. However the ability and speed at which fish and planktonic communities adapt to climate warming is not yet known. In other European regional areas, long-term data on marine phenology changes are quite sparse. According to some preliminary studies, there has also been some phenological movement in certain copepod species in the Mediterranean Sea over the past decade (Juan-Carlos Molinero, pers. com.).
Due to the sensitivity of their physiological development to temperature, decapod larvae were selected as representative of phenological changes in shelf-sea environments (Lindley, 1987). The zooplankton growing season indicator shows the annual timing of peak seasonal abundance of decapod larvae from 1958-2005 in the central North Sea (Figure 1 left). A shift towards an earlier seasonal peak is clearly visible. In particular, since 1988, the seasonal development of decapod larvae has occurred much earlier than the long-term average (baseline mean: 1958-2005) - in the 1990s up to 4-5 weeks earlier than the long-term average This trend towards an earlier seasonal appearance of decapod larvae during the 1990s is highly correlated with sea surface temperature (Figure 1 right).
Projections of how individual species react to future climate change have not yet been made, but the empirical evidence suggests that it is very likely that phenological changes will continue to occur as climate warming continues to accelerate. It is currently much less certain to what degree genetic adaptations within species populations can cope with these changes and whether the current pace of climate warming is too fast for genetic adaptations to take place.
In April 2009 the European Commission presented a White Paper on the framework for adaptation policies and measures to reduce the European Union's vulnerability to the impacts of climate change. The aim is to increase the resilience to climate change of health, property and the productive functions of land, inter alia by improving the management of water resources and ecosystems. More knowledge is needed on climate impact and vulnerability but a considerable amount of information and research already exists which can be shared better through a proposed Clearing House Mechanism. The White Paper stresses the need to mainstream adaptation into existing and new EU policies. A number of Member States have already taken action and several have prepared national adaptation plans. The EU is also developing actions to enhance and finance adaptation in developing countries as part of a new post-2012 global climate agreement expected in Copenhagen (Dec. 2009). For more information see: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/climat/adaptation/index_en.htm
No targets have been specified
No related policy documents have been specified
http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/eea_report_2008_4/pp193-207CC2008_ch8_Data_gaps.pdf
No methodology references available.
http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/eea_report_2008_4/pp193-207CC2008_ch8_Data_gaps.pdf
http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/eea_report_2008_4/pp193-207CC2008_ch8_Data_gaps.pdf
No uncertainty has been specified
For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/marine-phenology/marine-phenology-assessment-published-sep-2008 or scan the QR code.
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