EG Zoo

HELCOM Expert Group on Zooplankton

The Expert Group on Zooplankton (EG Zoo) has the purpose of developing zooplankton-based indicators to follow-up the implementation of the Baltic Sea Action Plan and supports the Joint Baltic Sea zooplankton monitoring and status assessments within HELCOM. The group contributes to the core indicator reports and data products regarding use of zooplankton in environmental status assessment, including the State of the Baltic Sea Assessment (HOLAS). The group serves as a forum for experts involved in the Baltic Sea zooplankton monitoring to share information on methodological aspects of collecting and analyzing samples, data storage, statistical treatment, quality assurance and taxonomical aspects of zooplankton research. In addition to the work on zooplankton indicators, the Group’s work focuses on zooplankton as a part of pelagic habitats and food webs and providing guidance on these topics in HELCOM processes and projects.

EG Zoo is also focused on the overall quality, evaluation and reporting of the national marine zooplankton monitoring data, on developing the use of long-term data for environmental assessment in the Baltic Sea as well as improving the efficiency of the monitoring data use and developing pelagic habitat assessments and their viability for use in HOLAS with respect to e.g., indicator aggregation.

The HELCOM Zooplankton Network started developing indicators in 2010 within the CORESET I project using zooplankton monitoring data from the Baltic Sea. It oversees development of the Zooplankton mean size and total stock (MSTS) indicator, which is currently being further developed under the HELCOM BLUES project. The Network has previously completed two projects: ZEN-QAI, the Quality Assurance and Integration of Zooplankton Monitoring in the Baltic Sea (2011-2014) and ZEN-ZIIM, the Zooplankton Indicator Integration to Monitoring in the Baltic Sea (2015-2017).

EG Zoo is meeting once or twice per year with the option of physical workshops to tackle specific issues, facilitated by the HELCOM Secretariat.

Documents

Contact

Elena Gorokhova

Chair of EG Zoo
Professor,
Departement of Environmental Sciences
Stockholm University
elena.gorokhova@aces.su.se

Florent Nicolas

Associate Professional Secretary
HELCOM Secretariat
florent.nicolas@helcom.fi

Jannica Haldin

Professional Secretary
HELCOM Secretariat
jannica.haldin@helcom.fi