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 hard substrate” includes classes “Rock and other hard substrate” and “Coarse substrate” of the original data, in the circalittoral zone. The original polygon maps have been converted to 1 km x 1 km 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 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.

Introduction of radionuclides is based on HELCOM MORS Discharge data from 2011 to 2014. The isotopes taken into account were: Cesium-137, Strontium-90, and Cobalt-60. The decay-corrected annual average of the sum of the radionuclide discharges (in Bq) were calculated for the pressure. 10 km buffer with linear decreasing function was used to represent the impact distance from the nuclear power plant outlets.

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

Submarine structures made by leaking gases (according to Habitats Directive Annex I) are also known as “bubbling reefs”. These formations support a zonation of diverse benthic communities consisting of algae and/or invertebrate specialists of hard marine substrates different to that of the surrounding habitat. The distribution map is based on data submission by HELCOM contracting parties. Only Sweden and Denmark reported occurrences of submarine structures made by leaking gases.

Estuaries (according to Habitats Directive Annex I) are coastal inlets that are strongly influenced by freshwater. The distribution map is based on data submission by HELCOM contracting parties. Most of the submitted data is based on modelling, GIS analysis and/or aerial photos. Data coverage, accuracy and the methods in obtaining the data vary between countries.

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 mud” includes classes “Fine mud”, “Sandy mud” and “Mud to sandy mud” of the original data, in the circalittoral zone. The original polygon maps have been converted to 1 km x 1 km 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.

The dataset contains data on bridges and other constructions. The dataset is constructed from Open Street Map “roads” shapefiles downloaded through Geofabrik by extracting all features where attribute bridges=1. It should be noted that the dataset contains major bridges and all other smaller constructions that have been classified as bridges in Open Street Map. The coverage for the dataset is whole Baltic.

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.

Data of fish farming facilities along the Baltic coast. Annual and average finfish production and nutrient load (total phosphorus and total nitrogen) is given, if known. The data was made available by HELCOM Contracting Parties in response to data request. The data was received from Denmark, Finland, Germany and Sweden. The activity was declared as not relevant for Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, thus there is no activity within those Contracting Parties. No data received from Russia. Nutrient inputs from fish farms in Denmark are calculated on the basis of production data. From Germany only the locations for the fish farming facilities are given. Information on the annual production and nutrient loads are confidential for reasons of competition and not accessible. Some numbers that were missing on nutrient input in Sweden have been calculated by SCB, Statistics Sweden (red numbers) based on average input/ amount produced fish. No exact area (km2) of the finfish mariculture was available, hence an estimate is given if been possible to calculate. Attribute specification and units: X_ETRS89: X coordinate point Y_ETRS89: Y coordinate point Subbasin: Baltic Sea sub basin Country: Country id (DK = Denmark, FI = Finland, SE = Sweden) County: County Name: Name of the fish farming company Comments: Notes regarding the data Area: Estimated area (km2) of finfish mariculture (value is given, if information was available) Pr_Sum_ton: Total (Sum) production in tonnes Pr_Av_ton: Average production (tonnes)/year P_Sum_ton: Total phosphorus load in tonnes P_Av_ton: Average phosphorus load (tonnes)/year N_Sum_ton: Total nitrogen load in tonnes N_Av_ton: Average nitrogen load (tonnes)/year Pr2011_ton – Pr2015_ton: Annual production (tonnes/year) P_2011_kg – P_2015_Kg: Annual phosphorus loading in kilograms (Kg P / year) N_2011_kg – N_2015_Kg: Annual nitrogen loading in kilograms (Kg N / year)