ECOSTAT meeting, June 28th, 2011 Water Bodies in Europe: Integrated Systems to assess Ecological Status and Recovery Funded under FP7, Theme 6: Environment (including Climate Change) Contract No.: 226273 www.wiser.eu sdfasdfasdf ECOSTAT meeting, June 28th, 2011

1 Management, coordination and reporting Rivers Rivers 6.1 Uncertainty 5.1 Effects of management and global change 6.2 Combination of organism groups Lakes Lakes 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 2.1 Data service 5.2 Effects of management and global change 2.2 Review 6.3 Cross water categories comparison Coastal/trans. 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Coastal/trans. 6.4 Comparison of recovery processes 5.3 Effects of management and global change 7 Dissemination

Contents Update “How likely is a successful intercalibration?” Uncertainty Final conference

Contents Update “How likely is a successful intercalibration?” Uncertainty Final conference

Updated after feedback by GIG members Final version (April 2011) Updated after feedback by GIG members

Methodology Based on questionnaires to GIG members For details on the procedure, criteria and feedback see presentation by D. Hering at ECOSTAT in March 2011

Feedback since last ECOSTAT meeting Five lake groups responded on preliminary version: Eastern Continental: Phytoplankton, benthic invertebrates Mediterranean: Macrophytes, fish Central/Baltic: Fish

Summary

Summary II Conclusion BQE/water category combinations of the last group unlikely to be successfully intercalibrated in IC Phase II (largely due to insufficient scientific foundation to develop WFD-compliant assessment systems)

Contents Update “How likely is a successful intercalibration?” Uncertainty Final conference

Uncertainty exercise Lake phytoplankton May 2011 (done) Lake macrophytes April 2011 (done) Lake invertebrates November 2011 Lake fish August 2011 TraC phytoplankton September 2011 TraC macroflora April to July 2011 (partly done) TraC invertebrates October 2011 TraC fish November 2011

Lake phytoplankton Metrics: 1 abundance: Chl a 4 composition (PTI, SPI, MFGI, FTI) 2 bloom (cyanobacteria abundance and evenness) Sources: Natural variability within and between lakes, sample, sub-sample, analyst Status: Done (D3.1-3: Thackeray et al., uncertainty in phytoplankton metrics, draft circulated to GIGs 10th June 2011) Results: See next slide

Within-lake variability Phytopl. Trophic Index Size Phytopl. Index Morpho-Function. Gr. I. Functional Trait Index Within-lake variability Little effect of station and sample on metric scores Analyst and sub-sample variability high for 2 metrics (SPI & Evenness) => not recommended for IC Between-lake variability Water body accounted for 65–96% of metric variability For Chl a, PTI, MFGI and cyanobacteria >85% of metric variability is between lakes, and phosphorus is the best predictor variable

Lake macrophytes Metrics: ICM (Nigel Willby) Ellenberg Index Taxon richness Sources: Natural variability within and between lakes Status: Done (D3.2-2: Dudley et al., report on uncertainty in macrophyte metrics, March 2011) Results: Abundance-based metrics were stronger related to TP, sampling at > 1 m depth (entire depth range) necessary to provide reliable results

Lake benthic invertebrates Metrics: # taxa # EPTCBO taxa % Odonata % ETO % lithal preference % gathering collectors % grazers Margalef diversity Sources: Natural variability within and between lakes/samples, comparison with low-cost sampling strategy Status: Under development Results: Awaited by November 2011

Lake fish Metrics: Sources: Natural spatial variability within lakes CPUE (number of fish caught per unit effort expressed in h.m2 of gillnets) BPUE (biomass of fish caught per unit effort) Sources: Natural spatial variability within lakes Status: Under development Results: Awaited by August 2011

Phytoplankton in coastal waters Metrics: Chl a Community composition Sources: Replicate sampling, analyst, natural spatial variability within whole water body Status: Under development for D4.1-3 Results: Awaited by September 2011

Macroalgae / angiosperms in TraC Metrics: Eelgrass depth limit (Baltic/Nordic) CFR, RICQI (NEA) EEI-c (Med-Cymodocea) 14 Posidonia metrics (“POMI“) (Med-Posidonia) EI/EEI (Black Sea) Sources: Spatial and temporal (seasonal/ interannual) variation within a water body, sampling, sub-sampling Status: Done for NEA, Med-Cymodocea and Med-Posidonia under development for Black Sea Results: Bennett et al., accepted (see next slide)

Bennet et al., accepted: “The factors ‘surveyor’, ‘year’, ‘site’ and ‘zone’ displayed relatively low levels of uncertainty in the ecological status classification of water bodies based on both POMI 9 and POMI14, whilst ‘depth’ resulted in relatively high probability of misclassification. ”

Benthic invertebrates in TraC Metrics: Multimetric methods Sources: Spatial variation and replicate sampling effects Status: Under development Results: Expected by October 2011

Fish in transitional waters Metrics: Total richness # Estuarine Resident species p/a of indicator species Total abundance (std. for sampling effort) % Omnivorous # of marine juvenile individuals (std. by sampling effort) Sources: Spatial between and within water bodies (station/salinity class effects), sampling gear, estuary/lagoon Status: Under development Results: Expected by October 2011

Contents Update “How likely is a successful intercalibration?” Uncertainty Final conference

2 days Final Project Meeting WISER consortium + interested end users + advisory board 2 days Final Conference Assessment and Uncertainty Management and Climate Change 2 open poster sessions 2 end user workshops on software tools (http://www.wiser.eu/meetings-and-events/final-conference/)

WISER final conference Aims: To inform about the outcome of intercalibration To inform about the status of assessment systems To discuss experiences and strategies for restoration To discuss the next steps of WFD implementation Target group: End users in environmental administration, river basin districts Decision makers and water managers responsible for future monitoring systems and river basin management plans

Conference program

Poster sessions One each on assessment and management Open to all interested presenters Extended summaries (abstracts, ~ 1,500 words) desired for each poster => conference proceedings Deadline: 15 October 2011

WISER final conference: Arrangements Costs: ~ 350/380 € (2 days, 2 nights all inclusive) Registration mandatory; deadlines: 31 Aug (early bird) / 15 Nov http://www.wiser.eu/news/final_conference Further questions? => final_conference@wiser.eu

Thank you!