Harmonization of Nordic coastal marsh habitat classification benefits conservation and management

Abstract

Coastal marshes are productive and diverse habitats that act as essential linkages between marine and terrestrial ecosystems. Although the Nordic region comprises diverse, unique marsh habitats along the Baltic coast and the Atlantic coast of Norway, they are not widely recognized as coastal marshes, e.g., salt marshes in other parts of the world. This may be partly due to inconsistency in habitat classification, use of terminology, and the heterogeneity of these habitats across the region, which limit overviews of their ecology, distribution, and management. Here, we aim to improve the basis for assessments of Nordic coastal marshes by providing an overview of terminology, distribution, area, and management practices of these habitats across the region. We use the general term coastal marsh to cover the variety of habitat types in the study area, which are covered mainly by the European Union's (EU's) Habitats Directive Annex I habitat classes 1310 Salicornia and other annuals colonizing mud and sand, 1320 Spartina swards (Spartinion maritimae), 1330 Atlantic salt meadows (Glauco-Puccinellietalia maritimae), and 1630 Boreal Baltic coastal meadows. Based on input from national environmental officers, an expert survey, a workshop, and reviewing environmental databases, we compiled a comprehensive database on coastal marsh habitats regarding their distribution, classification, conservation status, management, and monitoring practices in four Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden) and Germany, covering wide environmental gradients in, e.g., salinity and tidal range. Overall, we found that the four Annex I classes cover an area of ∼900 km2 in the study region, one-fourth of the total area of these habitats in the EU, with an additional ∼450 km2 of other potential coastal marsh areas and 500 km2 of coastal reed beds. Beyond the variable terminology across the region, our study revealed a gap in the European habitat classification systems concerning the diversity of the Baltic Sea coastal marshes. Creating subtype(s) for the Annex I class 1630 would help to improve the conservation of the most threatened habitat types within the class. In addition, we found pronounced differences in monitoring and managing coastal marshes among countries, indicating that these important and diverse habitats between land and sea might receive insufficient attention and protection despite the multiple ecosystem services they provide. Coordinated harmonization of habitat classifications and monitoring across the Nordic countries could increase regional-scale coordination of the management of coastal marshes and facilitate comparative studies.