WG ECOSTAT meeting - Ispra, 20 Mar 2012 Maria Dulce Subida & Pilar Drake Experts for CW & TW benthic invertebrates SPAIN - Andalusia

NEA-GIG CW BENTHIC INVERTEBRATE FAUNA BO2A METHOD - ES Until October 2011, 3 IC approaches followed: Traditional option 3 supported by pseudo-common metric, gave average good results but difficulties with assumptions drove us to look for an alternative Option 3a: 3a 3b alternative 3a 3a 3b alternative 3a C OMPARABILITY CRITERIA BOUNDARYBIASBOUNDARYBIAS CLASSAGREEMENTCLASSAGREEMENT OK for original boundaries but difficulties with assumptions OK for original boundaries Not assessed (more stringent criteria) OK for H-G boundary Not OK for G-M Cause: Biogeographical issue. Metrics highly dependent on diversity not suitable for southern regions influenced by Mediterranean Sea. M-AMBIBATM-AMBIBAT Data from: → phase I: ES (N), FR, PT → phase 2: ES (S) Data from: → phase I: ES (N), FR, PT → phase 2: ES (S) proposed in phase II BO2A proposed in phase II BO2A intercalibrated with accepted in phase I - ES (north), FR - ES (north), FR - PT - PT accepted in phase I - ES (north), FR - ES (north), FR - PT - PT ES-AN (Andalusia, southern Spain, in the transition between Atlantic and Mediterranean)

At WG ECOSTAT meeting in Oct 2011: Green light for this IC exercise -> IC feasible At IC validation workshop in Nov 2011: Comparability procedure of IC guidance difficult to apply. Instructions by IC steering group to use an ecologically-based approach Final IC approach using % of opportunistic polychaetes as yardstick: (final milestone report Dec 2011) 1. Identification of the sources of discrepancy and exclusion of outliers; 2. Exclusion of ES southernmost (ES-AN) samples and construction of the “North” (N) dataset ; 3. Comparability and harmonization of boundaries for BO2A, M-AMBI, BAT for the N dataset; 4. Application of the % of opportunistic polychaetes (%OP) as yardstick to compare the harmonized BO2A boundaries in the N dataset with the original boundaries proposed by ES-AN. 1. Identification of the sources of discrepancy and exclusion of outliers; 2. Exclusion of ES southernmost (ES-AN) samples and construction of the “North” (N) dataset ; 3. Comparability and harmonization of boundaries for BO2A, M-AMBI, BAT for the N dataset; 4. Application of the % of opportunistic polychaetes (%OP) as yardstick to compare the harmonized BO2A boundaries in the N dataset with the original boundaries proposed by ES-AN. NEA-GIG CW BENTHIC INVERTEBRATE FAUNA BO2A METHOD - ES

Final IC approach using % of opportunistic polychaetes as yardstick: (final milestone report Dec 2011) Final IC approach using % of opportunistic polychaetes as yardstick: (final milestone report Dec 2011) 3. Comparability and harmonization of boundaries for BO2A, M-AMBI and BAT for the N dataset Original boundaries of BO2A comparable with MAMBI and BAT from phase I, in the North dataset approach 3a (from the guidance) alternative 3a approach 3a (from the guidance) alternative 3a BOUNDARYBIASBOUNDARYBIAS CLASSAGREEMENTCLASSAGREEMENT BO2A more stringent and difficulties with assumptions OK for original boundaries Not assessed Low agreement only at G-M due to few data but: BO2A more stringent complete N dataset depurated N dataset complete N dataset depurated N dataset use BO2A original boundaries in next step NEA-GIG CW BENTHIC INVERTEBRATE FAUNA BO2A METHOD - ES C OMPARABILITY CRITERIA

27 % 0.83 H-G ES-AN original boundaries 55 % 0.50 G-M 27 % 0.78 H-G 0.78 H-G ES-AN harmonized boundaries 55 % South dataset 0.44 G-M 0.44 G-M 55 % 27 % Northdataset Final IC approach using % of opportunistic polychaetes as yardstick: (final milestone report Dec 2011) Final IC approach using % of opportunistic polychaetes as yardstick: (final milestone report Dec 2011) 4. Application of the % of opportunistic polychaetes (%OP) as yardstick to compare the harmonized BO2A boundaries in the N dataset with the original boundaries proposed by ES-AN NEA-GIG CW BENTHIC INVERTEBRATE FAUNA BO2A METHOD - ES % OP = EQR BO2A r 2 = 0.99 % OP = EQR BO2A r 2 = 0.99

CONCLUSIONS:CONCLUSIONS: Assessment method duly described during IC exercise Sound ecological knowledge of IC datasets Comparability of BO2A assessed following IC guidance Several alternatives developed when guidance assumptions not met Alternative comparability approach yielded sound results IC procedure clear and reproducible IC procedure analyzed, discussed and verified in IC validation workshop IC results take into account biogeographical differences IC RESULTS SHOW THAT BO2A IS AN ACCURATE METHOD FOR THE ASSESSMENT OF ECOLOGICAL QUALITY OF COASTAL WATERS IN SOUTHERN SPAINBO2A Northern regions Southern regions H-G G-M THE FINAL BOUNDARIES TO BE INCLUDED IN THE COMMISSION DECISION WOULD BE (see table): No changes to M-AMBI and BAT boundaries NEA-GIG CW BENTHIC INVERTEBRATE FAUNA BO2A METHOD - ES

Sunset in one Andalusian CW-NEA by Alberto Arias (ICMAN-CSIC)