Final Report of the Working Group on Ecosys-tem Assessment of Western European shelf Seas (WGEAWESS)

The WGEAWESS meeting was held in Belfast, Northern Ireland (UK), on 14–18 March 2016, with nine participants from five countries. The meeting was chaired by Steven Beggs (UK (NI)) and Eider Andonegi (Spain (Basque Country)). This was the final year of the ongoing three-year terms of reference during which the group have had three meetings and one by correspondence in 2014. During the three-year period, the group has made good progress in all ToRs. The initial activity of the group has included the cataloguing and identification of datasets that would be potentially val-uable in an IEA. As well as environmental data the identification of the main sec-tor/human activity linkages to pressures imposed on the region have been identified through the ODEMM1 linkage framework. This has been developed for a number of regions and subregions. Using datasets identified by the group integrated trend Analysis (ITA) has been developed for a number of subregions. This approach de-pends on suitable time-series has been useful in identifying and exploring ecosystem states and trends, while revealing biotic and abiotic drivers, such as fishing and cli-mate.