1. ECOSTAT, JRC 12-13 April 2007 MEDiterranean RIVers GIG Report
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
DIRECTORATE GENERAL JRC
JOINT RESEARCH CENTRE
Institute of Environment and Sustainability
ECOSTAT, JRC April MEDiterranean RIVers GIG Report

2. Med Riv GIG – present situation
Invertebrates:
For the moment only results for this element are available
Phytobenthos (Diatoms):
Preliminary stage, lack of data, some data treatment was done, decisions will be taken soon
Macrophytes:
Just starting, lack of data, lack of methods, is it an appropriate BQE for Mediterranean rivers ?

3. Invertebrates Pressures: general pressures - organic/nutrients/hydromorphological
Type
River
characteristics
Cyprus
France
Greece
Italy
Portugal
Spain
R-M1
Small
mid-altitude Y
R-M2
Medium
lowland
R-M4
Medit mountains
R-M5
Temporary, small

4. IC approach Agreement on Reference criteria (REFCOND)
Through quantitative ICM as a translation index
- to compare the boundaries of the national classification systems and
- to set the boundaries to each IC type through averaging of national boundaries;
deriving the “acceptability band”: mean value of national boundaries (in ICM) ± 5% band
national boundaries not lower than the minimum value of this band are accepted

5. National assessment methods should show a good relation with ICM and be WFD compliant. Data provided by MSs were double-checked For each IC type, each MS used data from single national types to reduce variability

6. ICM (Intercalibration Common Metric)
An ICM is a multi-metric index
- Selection of metrics were based on the responsiveness
to degradation
and
their compliance with the WFD requirements
(taxonomic composition and abundance, ratio of sensitive to insensitive taxa, level of diversity)
Several ICMs were developed for the Med GIG;
STAR-ICM was chosen (= CB_GIG and N_GIG)

7. Reference conditions Common procedure
Pressure criteria to select Reference Sites. Based on the REFCOND Guidance. Same criteria as for other GIGs.
For the sites in doubt, chemical data were used for checking

8. National Methods
Cyprus: STAR Intercalibration Common Metric Index (STAR_ICMi)
France: IBGN, Indice Biologique Global Normalisé (AFNOR NF T , 1992) ; WFD compliant classification
Greece: STAR Intercalibration Common Metric Index (STAR_ICMi)
Italy: STAR Intercalibration Common Metric Index (STAR_ICMi), type specific
Portugal: IPtI Invertebrate Portuguese Index: IPtIN and IPtIS
Spain: IBMWP(Alba-Tercedor & Sánchez-Ortega, 1988; Alba-Tercedor, 2004) .

9. Main checking steps (March-April 2007)
Official methods classifications were checked for WFD compliancy ( based on general description of the classification system provided by MS)
Checking of the criteria used to accept Reference sites
Checking regression between EQR MS_value and EQR ICMi (including R2, linearity, formulae availability)
Screening for sources of natural variability (e.g. when boundaries are too low)

10. GIG Averaging

13. R-M4
Cyprus
Greece
Italy
Spain (no data)
Mean
-5% 5%
High-Good
0.972
0.956
0.938 --
0.955
0.905
1.005
Good-Moderate
0.729
0.717
0.703
0.716
0.666
0.766

15. Phytobenthos MED IC process
1st progress report
Report prepared by Juliette TISON
Involved MSs: France, Portugal, Spain.

16. National Metric for Intercalibration: France: IBD (Coste in Cemagref, 1982) Portugal: IPS (Lenoir et Coste, 1996) CEE (Descy et Coste, 1990) for R-M5 Spain: IPS (Lenoir et Coste, 1996)

17. Number of samples: Number of reference samples:

18. National Boundaries France Portugal Spain

19. Non-parametric Statistical Treatment to test differences on reference samples:
Using TI, IPS and IBD, results show that, :
- M1 and M2 are not significantly different
M3 and M5 are not significantly different
with TI and IBD, M1, M3 and M5 are not signif. different.

20. and DCA Analysis
confirmed that, according to diatom composition, IC types are apparently not relevant.

21. Choice of ICM:
The ICM used for CB and Alpine Diatom IC process will be first tested for all types
EQR_IPS = Observed value / reference value
EQR_TI = (4-observed value) / (4-reference value )
ICM = (EQR-IPS + EQR-TI) / 2

22. RESULTS (ICM):

23. First conclusions and questions
 The main question is: what types do we decide to intercalibrate ?
-         IC types seem not statistically different, except type M4
-         M3: this type should not be intercalibrated, as reference stations for large river types are open to criticism and only Spain presents M3 samples
-         M5: temporary rivers are a very specific river type and should be intercalibrated separately. But as only Spain and Portugal present samples from this type, it seems very difficult to calculate acceptable bands of ecological status boundaries…
M1, M2 and M4 should be intercalibrated together ?
Even if rivers from M4 are mostly from mountainous areas, EQR are expected to be more are less equivalent. Moreover, only Spain presents enough data from M4, as France only has reference samples for this type.

24. Macrophytes MED IC process
Information provided by Christian CHAUVINe
IC IC process for Macrophytes is at a very preliminary stage. It is in fact just starting now.
So far, only Portugal provided data and assessment method.
France provided data from a few sites.
Spain indicated the assessment method but provided no data data yet.
Cyprus has confirmed his intention to participate in the IC discussion, but has neither method nor data yet (the assessment project is just starting). Italy is now “in the run”, but is not so advanced about method for the Italian mediterranean zone. Malta intends to participate in the discussion, but has no method and very few information on macrophytes. Greece does not intend to participate, because of the absence of both method and macrophyte data in rivers.

25. Apparently there are two groups of interrogations conditioning the IC process for macrophytes in Mediterranean rivers :
the poor advancement of this BQE in Mediterranean national assessment systems, thus a lack of both official method and data;
the relevance of macrophytes (as strictly aquatic vegetation) as an ecological indicator in Mediterranean rivers, especially in temporary streams.
      Address this particular crucial point will be the next step.

26. FUTURE WORK
Periphyton: IC will proceed in order to improve the present results, after discussing some open issues, namely the merging of IC types. Some more progress on data treatment with the available data is expected by June Possibly in a near future some more MS may join the IC process. Considering the difficulties of some MS to get biological data, possibly only in September 2007 results including new participating MS will be reported. 
Macrophytes: IC will depend on the availability of data as some MS expressed their wish to intercalibrate but did not send any data. Possibly some progress on this biological element may be expected by September 2007.