1. 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.:
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ECOSTAT meeting, June 28th, 2011

2. 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

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

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

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

7. 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

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

9. Summary

10. 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)

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

12. 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 (partly done)
TraC invertebrates October 2011
TraC fish November 2011

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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)

20. 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. ”

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

22. 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

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

24. 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 (

25. 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

26. Conference program

27. 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

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

29. Thank you!