This dataset contains all heavy metal monitoring station locations, observed matrix, biota matrix and monitored species as reported to HELCOM secretariat by HELCOM Contracting Parties by 2016.

The dataset was created in order to update the information regarding underwater pipelines in the Baltic Sea Region for the HELCOM Assessments. Data was collected by the HELCOM Secretariat during 2015. The data was made available by HELCOM Contracting Parties in response to data request. The data was received from Denmark, Germany, Finland and Poland. The report data represents constructions on respective territorial waters, authorized facilities and activities from 2015. The activity was declared as not relevant in Lithuanian area. From Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia and Sweden no data was reported. Attribute specification and units: NAME COUNTRY CAPACITY (MW) STATUS (Operational, Under Construction, Application Submitted, Planned, Unknown) SOURCE

This dataset contains all TBT in seawater monitoring station locationsas reported to HELCOM secretariat by HELCOM Contracting Parties by 2016.

This dataset contains all TBT in biota monitoring station locations, observed matrix, biota matrix and monitored species as reported to HELCOM secretariat by HELCOM Contracting Parties by 2016.

This dataset contains all heavy metal monitoring station locations, observed matrix, biota matrix and monitored species as reported to HELCOM secretariat by HELCOM Contracting Parties by 2016.

Broad-scale habitat maps for the Baltic Sea have been produced in the EUSeaMap project in 2016. For German and Estonian marine areas, national (more accurate) datasets were used. German data included both substrate and light information (division into infralittoral/circalittoral). Estonian data included only substrate and the division into light regimes was obtained from the EuSeaMap data. Here, the habitat class “circalittoral sand includes classes “Sand” and “Muddy sand” of the original data, in the circalittoral zone. The original polygon maps have been converted to 1 km x 1km grid. The scale of the substrate data used in broad-scale habitat maps varies from 1:250 000 to 1:1M (data from EMODnet Geology). Coarser resolution data has been used in areas, where 1: 250 000 substrate data has not been available. Due to different scales used, the habitat classes may show different sized patterns in different areas.

This dataset contains all PCB in sediment monitoring station locations as reported to HELCOM secretariat by HELCOM Contracting Parties by 2016.

This map presents the Special Protection Areas (SPAs) with reported wintering areas for birds. The spatial data on SPAs were gathered from the HELCOM contracting parties by Lund University, Sweden. In the data, the countries also indicated whether the sites were designated mainly due to wintering or breeding birds in the area. For Denmark, the information was obtained from standard forms for Natura 2000 sites. For Denmark, the data was updated after review process 20 February 2017. For Germany, the areas that were reported as “NA”(=information not available) were included in both breeding and wintering area maps. Many of the SPAs are both wintering and breeding areas. For the Baltic Sea Impact Index, the data was converted to 1 km x 1km grid cells.

Boreal Baltic islets and small islands (according to Habitats Directive Annex I) are groups of skerries, islets or single small islands, mainly in the outer archipelago or offshore areas. They are important nesting sites for birds and resting sites for seals. The surrounding sublittoral vegetation is also included. The distribution map is based on data submission by HELCOM contracting parties. Only Sweden and Finland reported occurrences of boreal Baltic islets and small islands.

Springtime Chl-a concentration is here used as a proxy for productive surface waters. In the Baltic Sea Impact Index (BSII), areas with high springtime phytoplankton production will be given higher importance, as they are considered important areas for the Baltic Sea food web. In the current map, mean of springtime maximum weekly values (weeks 12-22, years 2003-2011) Chl-a concentration of the surface waters has been used, derived from satellite data (MERIS). Years 2003-2011 have been used, as there is no MERIS data available for years 2012-2016. The data for eastern Baltic Sea is provided by the Finnish Environment Institute (~300m resolution). Outside this high resolution data, MERIS-data downloaded from JRC-database has been used (~4 km resolution, to calculate average of maximum monthly values for April or May for 2003-2011). Both datasets were converted to 1 km x 1 km grid cells.