1180 Submarine structures made by leaking gases (EN)

Summary

Estimated observations of the biotope 1180 were collected from the Baltic Sea area by expert judgements for HELCOM Red List of biotopes, habitats and biotope complexes.

Description

Submarine structures made by leaking gasesThe HELCOM Red List of Baltic Sea underwater biotopes, habitats and biotope complexes (2013) is an updated and improved version of the Red List assessment of marine and coastal biotopes and biotope complexes published in 1998. The classification of the report follows the proposed International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) criteria and assessment principals but with some modifications for the Baltic Sea.Altogether, the HELCOM Underwater Biotope and habitat classification (HELCOM HUB) includes 209 biotopes of which 59 were red-listed. Many of the red-listed biotopes are located in deep areas of the Baltic Sea due to oxygen-free nature as well as in the southwestern Baltic Sea due to the salinity restricted distribution of species in certain biotope. The HELCOM assessment relies heavily on expert judgment and inference, and the questionnaire data represents the estimated presence-absence data not in-situ measured data. This must be taken in account when observing the map presentation. The biotopes are shown on the map using the EEA 100 km grid. This dataset displays estimated presence of the biotope 1180 according to HELCOM RED LIST assessment experts:Shallow water examples of “bubbling reefs” colonised by macroalgae and/or animals are observed in Danish waters in the littoral and sublittoral zone from 0 to 30 m water depth. They are present in the northern Kattegat and in the Skagerrak and follow a NW SE direction parallel to the Fennoscandian fault line. Distribution map indicates the 10x10 km grid cells where the biotope complex is known to occur. More specific knowledge of the distribution of the biotope complex allowed its presentation on a higher resolution grid (Seffel 2010, EUNIS Database). If the occurrence had been presented in the 100x100 km grid used for the other biotope complexes, then the squares 11, 9, 20 and 18 had been indicated.(Data (expert judgements) collected in HELCOM RED LIST project, released in May 2013)