Assessment of sea-floor integrity under the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive : supplementary information to the Article 8 assessment guidance

The assessment of the sea-floor and benthic habitats of Europe's seas is a requirement of the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) under the qualitative descriptor 6 ("Sea-floor integrity is at a level that ensures that the structure and functions of the ecosystems are safeguarded and benthic ecosystems, in particular, are not adversely affected"). Article 8 of the MSFD requires this assessment, while Commission Decision 848/2017 lays down the criteria and methodological standards for such an assessment. The guidance document #19 for the MSFD implementation (European Commission, 2022) provides an overview of the assessments under Article 8 for all the qualitative descriptors, while this report aims to give a more elaborated guidance for Descriptor 6, and provide supplementary information, with examples and proposed ways of handling data, using indicators, and agreed thresholds.