This, the third of the European Environment Agency's Environmental signals reports - Benchmarking the Millennium, provides an insight into the state of Europe's environment and is targeted at high-level policy makers in EEA member countries and the European Union, as well as the wider public....

This report, written for the EEA by experts from the European Science Foundation, considers the significance of the transfer by pollen of genes from six major genetically modified (GM) crop types that are close to commercial release in the European Union. Oilseed rape, sugar beet, potatoes,...

# The Arctic biogeographical region has a highly varied landscape and contains some of Europe’s few remaining large wilderness areas.# The climatic conditions put extreme pressure on plants and animals, and large parts of the region are still under glaciation. Permafrost is widespread.# There...

Nearly 87 % of the Black Sea is entirely anoxic (without oxygen) and contains high levels of hydrogen sulphide. This is the result of past geological events, its shape and its specific water balance (high degree of isolation from the world ocean, deep water depression with a maximum depth of 2...

The North Sea is a shallow and rather young ecosystem formed by the flooding of a landmass some 20 000 years ago. Its coasts and waters are still being colonised by new species from the Atlantic. The strong coupling between benthic and pelagic communities in the shallow parts of the sea makes it...

The North-east Atlantic Ocean is a part of the Atlantic Ocean and is dominated by deep ocean basins, except the Celtic Sea, the shelf along the Bay of Biscay and Iberian coast. The formation of the North Atlantic deep water is one of the driving forces for the thermohaline circulation of the...

The Boreal region is the largest biogeographical region of Europe. The climate is cool and mainly continental. It is Europeu0092s forest region, dominated by conifers. The forest area increases, getting more uniform and with less tree species and less biodiversity in the stands. The southern...