Workshop on methods and guidelines to link human activities, pressures and state of the ecosystem in Ecosystem Overviews (WKTRANSPARENT; outputs from 2020 meeting)

The Workshop on methods and guidelines to link human activities, pressures and state of the ecosystem in Ecosystem Overviews (WKTRANSPARENT) focused on advancing the interdisciplinary contributions to the ICES Ecosystem Overviews. The Ecosystem Overviews are central to ICES approach to support evidence-based ecosystem-based management across ICES ecore-gions and facilitate our capacity to provide integrated ecosystem advice. Experts in natural, economic, and social sciences met to advance the following objectives: i) identify and evaluate ap-proaches for the incorporation of ecosystem processes and functions, ii) review methodological approaches for prioritizing main pressures, and iii) propose updates to technical guidelines.
Two perspectives on the relevance of ecosystem functions and processes were explored: i) extension of the direct effects to ecosystem services, and ii) inclusion of indirect effects to understand how the direct impacts may have knock-on effects on other ecosystem components.
Multiple risk assessment approaches were reviewed to identify candidate methodologies for use in prioritizing the main pressures present in each ecoregion. A downscaled approach using Op-tions for Delivering Ecosystem-based Marine Management (ODEMM) focusing on the risk aspects was selected as the most suitable method. Elements for inclusion in the assessment were agreed, and future developments such as cumulative effects assessments and inclusion of ecosystem services were discussed.
Proposed updates to the technical guidelines included, amongst others, i) a revised structure of the overviews, ii) a proposal for a major revision of the methodology for the human activity-pressure-ecosystem state component network figure, and iii) the addition of several new sections that describe the process of updating and revising, the feedback mechanisms, and the adoption of a pipeline process to incorporate new topics. In addition, glossaries on human activities, pres-sures and ecosystem state components were provided. The work on technical guidelines will form the basis for updating ICES Technical Guidelines of Ecosystem Overviews.
In order to further advance the Ecosystem Overviews, WKTRANSPARENT recommends (1) arranging a new workshop to identify options to incorporate ecosystem services, (2) seeking fur-ther development of ideas for the inclusion of foodweb information, and (3) organising a training event on ecosystem assessment methods.