The POSEIDON oceanographic units together with the new fisheries monitoring equipment will provide the facilities for the routine recording of the following characteristics, pressure and impacts referred to Annex III of MFSD (related also with MSFD Articles 5(2iv) and 11 (1)):
Characteristics - Physical and chemical features
-
annual and seasonal temperature regime, current velocity, upwelling, wave exposure, mixing characteristics, turbidity, residence time
-
spatial and temporal distribution of salinity
-
spatial and temporal distribution of oxygen
Characteristics – Biological features
-
information on the structure of fish populations, including the abundance, distribution and age/size structure of the populations
Pressure and Impacts – Other physical disturbance
-
Underwater noise (e.g. from shipping, underwater acoustic equipment)
Pressure and impacts - Interference with hydrological processes
-
Significant changes in thermal regime
-
Significant changes in salinity regime
Regarding the geographical coverage, the system will provide data for the following marine subregions (defined in MSFD Article 4(2) :
-
the Ionian Sea and the Central Mediterranean Sea
-
the Aegean-Levantine Sea.
According to the above, the project’s results will comply with the following expected outcomes and indicators for outputs described in Annex I of the Progamme Agreement:
Expected Outcome: Improved monitoring of marine waters
Output: Upgrades of existing systems for an integrated marine monitoring programme.
Output indicator: Number of integrated marine monitoring programmes implemented, cf. MSFD Article 5 (2iv), Target: 1
Output: Increased area coverage of marine waters' monitoring programmes
Output indicator: Number of marine sub-regions [cf MSFD, Article 4(2)] where a monitoring programme has been implemented, Target: 3