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As a main source of protein, fish stocks and other sea products are renewable resources, which could sustain human needs in the long term — if exploited in an appropriate manner. The overall use of fish and shellfish stocks in Europe currently remains beyond the limit for long-term environmental sustainability. However, the analysis of long time series shows important and recent signs of improvement in the North-East Atlantic Ocean and Baltic Sea. Since the early 2000s, better management of fish and shellfish stocks has contributed to a clear decrease in fishing pressure in these two regional seas, and signs of recovery in the reproductive capacity of several fish and shellfish stocks have started to appear. If these efforts continue, meeting the 2020 objective for healthy fish and shellfish stocks in the North-East Atlantic Ocean and Baltic Sea could be possible based on two of three criteria (i.e. fishing mortality and reproductive capacity). In contrast, there is small likelihood that the 2020 policy objective will be met in the Mediterranean and Black Seas.
This page gives a short introduction to the Natura 2000 network and provides an overview of the EEA contribution to the network.
At the EU level, there has been a decrease in the agricultural nitrogen balance between 2000 and 2015, which is an indication of an improving trend. The main decrease was between 2000 and 2010; between 2010 and 2015 there was no further significant decrease. A country comparison of the average agricultural nitrogen balance for the years 2000-2003 and 2012-2015, shows that for the majority of European countries there was a reduction in the nitrogen balance, reflecting an improving trend. Although the agricultural nitrogen balance is decreasing in most Member States, it is still considered to be unacceptably high in some parts of Europe because of associated impacts on the environment. This is particularly true in western Europe and in some Mediterranean countries. Even in countries with low national averages, there can be regions with high nitrogen loadings because of agricultural intensity, such as livestock density. Further efforts are therefore needed to reduce the balance.
The total area of nationally designated protected areas in Europe [1] has increased over time and amounted to 1.5 million km 2 across 39 European countries in 2017, covering almost 26 % of terrestrial territory and inland waters. With more than 100 000 sites, though often small and fragmented, Europe has more protected areas than any other region in the world.
The indicator estimates the potential surplus (or deficit) of nitrogen in agricultural land. It calculates the balance between nitrogen added to an agricultural system and nitrogen removed from the system annually in kilograms of nitrogen per hectare of utilised agricultural area. The input side of the balance counts mineral fertiliser application and manure excretion as well as atmospheric deposition, biological fixation and biosolids (compost, sludge and sewage) input. The output side of the balance represents the removal from grassland (grazing and mowing) and the net crop uptake (removal) from arable land. The gross nitrogen balance takes an 'extended soil' surface (or 'land' surface) as the system boundary, meaning that it also includes nitrogen losses from animal housing and manure management (e.g. storage) systems. The data used are partly based on expert estimates of various physical parameters for the individual countries as a whole. There may also be large regional variations within a country so national figures should be interpreted with care. To assess the trend in the development of the nitrogen balance, it is necessary to draw on average values over several years, as factors such as extreme weather conditions may influence the annual nitrogen surplus. In this case, 2000-2003, and 2011-2014 were taken as reference periods.
The indicator illustrates the rate of growth in the number and total area of nationally protected areas over time. The indicator can be disaggregated by IUCN category, by terrestrial and marine ecosystems and by country.
The EEA coastline dataset has been created for detailed analysis (e.g.:1/100000) for geographical Europe. The coastline is a hybrid product obtained from satellite imagery from two projects: EUHYDRO (Pan-European hydrographic and drainage database) and GSHHG (A Global Self-consistent, Hierarchical, High-resolution Geography Database), as well as some manual amendments to meet requirements from EU Nature Directives, Water Framework Directive and Marine Strategy Framework Directive. In 2015, several corrections were made in the Kalogeroi Islands and two other Greek little islets, as well as in the peninsula of Porkkala. In this revision from 2017, two big lagoons have been removed from Baltic region, because, according to HELCOM, are freshwater lagoons.
The coverage of ecosystem classes under the EU 'Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services' (MAES) framework was affected by change processes between 2006 and 2012, with urbanisation the most dominant process. Urban ecosystems showed the highest net increase both in the EU-28 and in the EEA-33 countries, predominantly at the expense of cropland and grassland. A very slight increase in coverage was observed in forest and woodland, while agricultural ecosystems, both cropland and grassland, continued to decrease. Vulnerable ecosystems such as heathland and sparsely vegetated land (dunes, beaches, sand plains, bare rocks and glaciers) continued to disappear between 2006 and 2012, although the loss of wetlands seems to have levelled off for the first time over the same period. It should be borne in mind, however, that approximately two thirds of European wetlands were lost before the 1990s and their area has subsequently continued to decrease.
Proportional and absolute change in extent of land cover categories aggregated to relate to MAES ecosystem typology in Europe.
Proportional and absolute change in extent and turnover of land cover categories aggregated to relate to MAES ecosystem types in Europe from 2006 to 2012. MAES ecosystem types are: (1) urban; (2) cropland; (3) grassland; (4) woodland and forest; (5) heathland and shrub; (6) sparsely vegetated land; (7) inland wetlands; (8) rivers and lakes; (9) marine inlets and transitional waters; and (10) marine. This indicator is based on photo-interpretation of satellite imagery and gives a 'wall-to-wall' picture of the changes and dynamics in Europe with respect to ecosystems. Additional indicators can be used to further highlight trends in extent and state of each of the ecosystem types mentioned above using computations from other data sources.
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For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/biodiversity/dm or scan the QR code.
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