VELMU first phase finalized – All data in a new map portal

Markku Viitasalo & VELMU-consortium

Juuso Haapaniemi / Metsähallitus

VELMU

The Finnish Inventory Programme for the

Underwater Marine Environment

main objectives

• To do an inventory of underwater habitats and species

• To support marine conservation and sustainable use of marine resources

• To build up a database and a new Map Portal

Juuso Haapaniemi

Lagoons

Stony beaches

Estuaries

Reefs

M. Westerbom Metsähallitus

M. Viitasalo

Underwater

sandbanks

How to locate the most valuable habitats?

Bladderwrack Fucus vesiculosus

How to locate habitat forming and rare species?

Eelgrass Zostera marina

Blue mussel Mytilus

trossulus

Pekka Tuuri Parks & Wildlife Finland

Parks & Wildlife Finland / H. Arponen

Hippuris tetraphylla

• Within the EU occurs only in Finland

1) Make a sampling scheme that

• has sufficient spatial coverage

• covers the environmental gradients affecting the species

2) Use quick methods (video) complement with dives

3) Use species and habitat modelling

~17.000

random

observation

points

+ 50.000

”grid points”

VELMU plan 2012-2015

Solution:

How were the data collected? Geological and biological inventories

• Bottom topography, geology

• Habitats

• Algae and water plants

• Invertebrates

• Fish spawning areas

Drop video

ROV

Benthic sampling

Sampling of fish larvae

Geological

echosounding

methods

Scuba diving

Algal lines

Parks & Wildlife Finland

Geol. Surv. Fin.

/ H. Kutvonen

SYKE

VELMU ”drop video” method

SYKE / M. Viitasalo

SYKE / M. Viitasalo

Parks & Wildlife Finland

ROV

M. Viitasalo, SYKE

VELMU partners

• Ministry of the Environment (funding and steering) • Finnish Environment Institute (coordination) • Coastal Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment • Parks & Wildlife Finland • Natural Resources Institute • Geological Survey of Finland • Naval Research Insitute (Finnish Navy) • Åbo Akademi University

Larger EU-funded projects:

Funding • Ministry of the Environment: ca 1,3 M€ /year in 2011-2015

Examples of end

products of VELMU

Geological maps

Geological Survey

Finland

Geographical

distribution maps: blue mussel Mytilus trossulus

Parks & Wildlife Finland / H. Arponen

SYKE / M. Viitasalo

Green: Mytilus found

Red: Mytilus not found

Species distribution models

Eelgrass Zostera marina - preliminary probability model / Elina Virtanen, SYKE

Example: Kymenlaakso Spatial Plan, SE Finland

Usage of VELMU data

in maritime spatial

planning

Yellow = underwater

eskers

Underwater sand-banks with 1 or 2 indicator species

Underwater sandbanks

Underwater eskers and sandbanks, and their indicator species

Summary graph Eskers, sandbanks, reefs, bladderwracks and indicator species

The current Natura 2000 area

Decision making Where to allow dumping of dredged materials?

The spatial plan

VELMU

Method

development

LIDAR Light Detection and Ranging Measures the distance to the ground by emitting red and green laser light Can identify shapes also underwater.

gulfsci.usgs.gov/tampabay

WorldView-2 satellite image depicting bottom depths from 0 to 4 meters, Hanko Peninsula, SW coast of Finland. H. Piepponen / SYKE; WorldView data by FRESHMON project (FP7 proj. nr. 263287). (SYKE / H. Piepponen)

WorldView-2 satellite image showing extent of reed (Phragmites australis; light green) in Tammisaari Archipelago, SW coast of Finland. (SYKE / M. Koskelainen)

Remote sensing

UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle)

Mats Westerbom

Photo: Jan Ekebom

AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle)

Parks & Wildlife Finland / Michael Haldin

SUPERB project & DeepVision Sweden

Some VELMU highlights 2004-2015

• 122 640 observation points:

• 95 600 video points (mainly drop-videos & ROV)

• 23 200 dive line points, in approx 2000 dive lines

• 1000+ benthos samples

• 1800 Gulf-lines for fish larvae

• 700 beach seine areas for fish larvae

• 340 white board points for fish larvae

• 20 000 km echosounding / 784 sediment samples

• 100 000+ underwater photos

February 2016

VELMU statistics

De Geer moraines at Rauma

– new finding 2012

Kuva: www.merenkurkku.fi Geological Survey Finland

Odd clay canyons in

the Bothnian Bay

A lot of rare and threatened species, and fish nursery areas in shallow bays

© Luke / Lari Veneranta

Najas tenuissima

Chara tomentosa

Alisma wahlenbergii

Huumanpohja, Kotka

Mud crab observed in the Archipelago Sea 1st time in 2009; expands rapidly

2015 found in River Aura, middle of Turku City

New findings for leaf beetle Macroplea pubipennis

2011 Porin

Viasvedenlahti

2015 Haminan

Summanlahti

Threatened species, in Europe found only in Finland The previous new observation in 1991

Two unknown species found!

• Murchisonellidae?

• Hamina E Gulf of Finland, 2013

• Length 2-4 mm, population density up to 500 ind. /m2

• Laonome sp.

• Turku, Inkoo, Uusikaupunki 2014, 2015

http://paikkatieto.ymparisto.fi/velmu

VELMU Map Portal

• An encyclopedia, atlas and photo book of the Finnish underwater

marine environment; to be published in 2017

Juuso Haapaniemi

”VELMU Atlas”

Summary

1. VELMU reached its main goals

2. A lot of new observations on habitats and species

3. Information can be used in conservation and sustainable use of the marine ecosystem, and in maritime spatial planning

4. VELMU will continue in a focused way

Mats Westerbom / Parks & Wildlife Finland

We did it!