A UK perspective on the development of marine ecosystem indicators

This paper reviews the suite of marine ecosystem indicators currently in use or under development in the UK to support the major national and international biodiversity and ecosystem policies. Indicators apply to a range of different ecosystem components, and range from those that can only be used for high level environmental health monitoring, to those which actively support management. Assessment of indicators against a management framework of driving force, pressure, state, impact and response, has shown that there are many indicators of state for ecosystem components, but relatively few for pressure of human activities on the environment, or of the socio-economic response to those pressures. This outcome, a result of unplanned sectorally driven indicator development, is not a co-ordinated contribution to marine environmental management and must be addressed if we are to avoid high monitoring costs and duplication of effort.