Transitional waters North East Atlantic geographic intercalibration group: Benthic invertebrate fauna ecological assessment methods

This report gives a technical description on the intercalibration (IC) process of the different benthic assessment approaches for soft sediment habitats (muds to sands) in transitional waters in the North East Atlantic Geographical Intercalibration Group (NEA-GIG) for type NEA 11 (Transitional Waters). Eight member states are involved: Belgium (BE), France (FR), Germany (DE), Ireland (RoI), the Netherlands (NL), Portugal (PT), Spain (SP), and United Kingdom (UK). In Spain, the competent authorities for the WFD application are the regions, as such, for the benthic macroinvertebrates assessment methods three regions have been considered: Andalusia (SP-An), Basque Country (SP-BC) and Cantabria (SP-C). Those member states proposed 7 approaches for IC: AeTV (DE), BAT (PT), BEQI (BE), BEQI2 (NL), IQI (RoI and UK), M-AMBI (DE and SP-BC), QSB (SP-C) and TAsBeM (SP-An). However, AeTV and BEQI are not intercalibrated as they assess benthic invertebrates at water body and ecosystem level, respectively, whereas the rest of methods assess the benthic status at sample level.JRC.D.2-Water and Marine Resource

An objective framework to test the quality of candidate indicators of good environmental status

Large efforts are on-going within the EU to prepare the Marine Strategy Framework Directive's (MSFD) assessment of the environmental status of the European seas. This assessment will only be as good as the indicators chosen to monitor the 11 descriptors of good environmental status (GEnS). An objective and transparent framework to determine whether chosen indicators actually support the aims of this policy is, however, not yet in place. Such frameworks are needed to ensure that the limited resources available to this assessment optimize the likelihood of achieving GEnS within collaborating states. Here, we developed a hypothesis-based protocol to evaluate whether candidate indicators meet quality criteria explicit to the MSFD, which the assessment community aspires to. Eight quality criteria are distilled from existing initiatives, and a testing and scoring protocol for each of them is presented. We exemplify its application in three worked examples, covering indicators for three GEnS descriptors (1, 5, and 6), various habitat components (seaweeds, seagrasses, benthic macrofauna, and plankton), and assessment regions (Danish, Lithuanian, and UK waters). We argue that this framework provides a necessary, transparent and standardized structure to support the comparison of candidate indicators, and the decision-making process leading to indicator selection. Its application could help identify potential limitations in currently available candidate metrics and, in such cases, help focus the development of more adequate indicators. Use of such standardized approaches will facilitate the sharing of knowledge gained across the MSFD parties despite context-specificity across assessment regions, and support the evidence-based management of European seas

Deliverable D4.4-3, Report detailing Multimetric fish-based indices sensitivity to anthropogenic and natural pressures, and to metrics’ variation range

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) aims at achieving good ecological status (GES) for surface water bodies throughout Europe, by 2015. Consequently European countries are currently developing and intercalibrating methods based on biological, hydromorphological and physico-chemical quality elements for the assessment of their transitional waters, including fishes. The present work focuses on the response of fish indicators and indices to anthropogenic pressures and natural factors. For doing that, datasets from the Basque and Portuguese estuaries, in the North East Atlantic, have been used. Hence, biological data from fish (and in some cases, crustaceans), together with different types of pressure (population, industry, ports, dredging, global pressures, pollution, channeling, etc.) and hydromorphological data (flow, estuary volume, depth, intertidal surface, residence time, etc.) have been analyzed. Together with fish assemblages composition and individual metrics (richness, trophic composition, etc.), two fish indices (Basque AFI and Portuguese EFAI) have been investigated. Additionally, the response of five fish indices (AFI, EFAI, ELFI, TFCI, Z-EBI) were tested on a common dataset, within Portuguese estuaries, to check the time lag in the metrics’ response to different human pressures and the variability in the strength of responses to those pressures. This work also focuses on the sensitivity analysis of two European fish-based indices (French ELFI and British TFCI) to changes in their respective metric scores through their observed dynamic range. Sensitivity analyses were run simulating different scenarios of metric score changes, taking into consideration the relationship between metrics. This allowed the metrics with stronger influence in the index score and the resulting water body classification to be highlighted. Importantly, the identification of the most influential metrics could help to guide management efforts in terms of achieving GES by 2015. In general, the fish metrics and indices tested responded to anthropogenic pressures in the Atlantic estuarine sites, yet at the individual metrics level environmental chemical quality was the main driver for observed differences. Also, some metrics did not respond to pressures as expected, which is most likely related to sampling gear efficiency, namely the low capture efficiency of diadromous species with beam trawl. The cause-effect relationship study emphasized that fish-based indices developed to assess the water quality of estuarine systems did not detect all the pressures with the same sensitivity in terms of strength and time-lag, and gave more importance to some pressures, namely chemical pollution. The fish-based indices developed to assess the water quality of estuarine systems do not allow the individualization of pressure effects, which may constitute a problem to put forward the correct specific measures for management and rehabilitation of estuaries. On the other hand, some indices also do not seem relevant, in a short time, to detect changes of the ecological quality which may constitute a handicap for management or an indication for their restructuring. The sensitivity analysis indicates that a number of estuarine resident taxa, a number of estuarine-dependent marine taxa, a number of benthic invertebrate feeding taxa and a number of piscivorous taxa have the greatest influence on the TFCI classification. For the French index ELFI, the most influential metrics are mainly DT (total density) and DB (density of benthic species), followed by RT (total richness). These results suggest a high sensitivity of the quality indication provided by these indices on richness related aspects of the fish assemblages. Management should therefore prioritize efforts to conserve or restore estuarine attributes underpinning abundance and ecological diversity, for example the diversity of fish habitats, food resources and shelter or the hydrological integration between coastal and transitional waters.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Deliverable D4.4-5: Precision and behaviour of fish-based ecological quality metrics in relation to natural and anthropogenic pressure gradients in European estuaries and lagoons

This report summarises the work conducted in Work Package 4.4 – BQE fish in transitional (i.e. estuarine and lagoon) waters (TW) within the project WISER under the sponsorship of the European Commission. It omits most technical details of the analyses given in the four previous Work Package reports, but still provides the necessary information to understand the rationale, approach and underlying assumptions necessary to discuss the results. The focus is therefore to discuss and integrate the results obtained within Work Package 4.4 and with this, make recommendations to improve fish-based ecological assessments in TW, principally estuaries and lagoons. In addition, and to assist with the WFD implementation which is the overarching theme of WISER, the deliverable includes, where appropriate, case studies where we have used multi-metric fish indices currently under development, or already in use for WFD compliance monitoring across Europe. Furthermore, results of the work package have been shared with relevant Geographical Intercalibration Groups (GIGs) supporting the harmonization and equalization process across transitional fish indices in Europe. Development strategies for fish indices in TW vary but generally include: (1) the calibration of metrics to anthropogenic pressures, (2) the development of reference conditions, (3) the calculation of ecological quality ratios, and (4) the designation of thresholds for Ecological Status (ES) class. New fish indices are developed for a defined geographical area, using specific sampling method and under locally relevant pressure fields. The former two factors, area and sampling methods, define the relevant reference condition in the calculation of Ecological Quality Ratios (EQR) and the latter factor, human pressures, define the índex structure and especially the fish metric selection. To assess index relevance across areas, we calculated a suite of transitional fish indices on a standardized WISER dataset and then compared the agreement of the outcomes (using correlation analysis). The application of current indices to areas (or countries) different from the area in which it was originally developed leads to inconclusive or spurious results. The failure to accommodate the diferente indices to a standardized dataset in this work clearly demonstrates the fundamental reliance of current fish indices on the sampling methods and design of monitoring programmes used in the development of the index. Despite this, for some indices, correlations although weaker are statistically significant, also indicating the possible agreement in successful intercalibration between these indices. Harmonization of BQE fish methodologies across Europe (common metrics) is unlikely by adapting or creating new fish indices but inter-comparison assessments are possible and valid using a common pressure index to harmonise diferente indices on a common scale. We found a negative response of fish quality features to pressure gradients which make BQE fish in TW suitable for greater ecological integration than other BQEs. However, successful assessment of Ecological Status (ES) require a matching combination of fish index, reference values and local dataset gathered with compatible sampling methods. Whole indices provide more consistent overall ES assessments but fish metrics considered individually may be more useful as a means to focus restoration measures. Future work is needed to identify those specific pressures affecting fish assemblages providing targets for minimising the effects of stress in mitigation and restoration plans. In order to achieve this, and although the interpretation of outcomes is still difficult, more recent transitional fish indices are leading in the use of comprehensive appraisal and validation exercises to test the responsiveness of BQEs for the assessment of ES. Here we proposed for the first time a simple sensitivity exercise under realistic scenarios of metric change to explore the expected inertia (i.e. the tendency to buffer ES change after quality alterations), dynamic range (i.e. the ratio between the largest and smallest possible ES values) and most relevant metric components (i.e. the those driving the most likely scenarios leading to ES change) from a multi-metric fish índex under relevant human pressure gradients. Overall, the behaviour of multi-metric índices under manipulations of metric scores clearly indicated that metric type, number of metrics used and correlations between metrics are important in determining the index performance, with indices including more and/or uncorrelated metrics or metrics with skewed distribution being less affected by extreme metric manipulations. Results of this analysis may be used to set realistic management targets and also to identify the aspects of the indices that are more likely to affect the outcomes leading to more robust and responsive indices. Further improvements of fish indices may be attained by reducing the variability confounding biological quality metrics. This variability is undesirable noise in assessments and can be technical (i.e. linked to the method of assessment including sampling effort) or natural (physicochemical and biological). The implication for assessments is that different facts might then confound the metric-pressure correlation (the ‘signal’ in the signal-to-noise ratio in the assessments) increasing uncertainty in ES assignment. Models showed that salinity class, depth, season, time of fishing (day vs. night) and year of fishing may influence the values of the fish metrics. The modelling exercise also demonstrated that unexplained variance remains generally much higher within-systems than between-systems suggesting a higher importance of sources of variability acting at the WB level. Modelling and improved standardization in monitoring campaigns should reduce uncertainty in ES assignment. One important factor that was assessed further was the effect of sampling effort. The results suggest that richness-based metrics require larger sampling efforts although a similar effortrelated bias may be an issue for density-based metrics if fish distribution is very patchy (i.e. schooling fish or those aggregated in specific habitats) and insufficient replicates are taken to fully characterise the patchiness in their distribution. It is apparent that to overcome a potential large source of error, the Reference Conditions must be defined according to the level of effort used in the monitoring programme or, conversely, the monitoring must be carried out at the same level of effort used to derive the Reference Condition. The WP finally explored the use of a predictive linear modelling approach to define reference conditions for fish metrics in transitional waters. The fish response data was modelled together with Corine Land Cover (CLC)-derived pressure proxies (% agricultural, urban and natural land coverage). Based on the obtained models, the expected metric score was predicted by setting pressure levels either to the lowest observed pressure in the dataset or to zero in order to define the sample and theoretical reference condition, respectively. Even when significant, the effect of pressures on fish metrics was generally very weak, probably reflecting the use of too-generic pressure indicators (such as land cover data instead of more relevant estuarine proxies such as dredging, port development, waterborne pollutants, etc). The best explanatory models included sampling factors and natural characteristics considered important discriminant features in the definition of water body types. In particular, the present work argues for considering not only estuaries and lagoons as different typologies but also other natural and design characteristic such as the gear type, the sampling season and the salinity class. Furthermore, a relevant reference needs to account for survey design bias, including rare species contribution to assessment datasets, patchiness, choice of pressure proxies or sampling gear. The modelling approach of fish metrics against the physicochemical variables has proved useful to derive Reference Conditions. This is important for the computation of relevant EQRs in Europe where there is a general lack of pristine areas or historical data on fish BQE and it provides an alternative to best professional judgment. Taking all WP analysis and case studies together, the work conducted has highlighted the following key messages and linked research needs necessary to optimize BQE fish for the quality assessment of transitional waters: Key Message 01: Harmonization of BQE fish methodologies across Europe (common metrics) is unlikely by adapting or creating new fish indices but inter-comparison assessments are possible and valid using a common pressure index to harmonise diferente indices on a common scale. Research needs to be focused on more widely-applicable fish indices will require the formulation of completely new indices based on a more flexible use of fish metrics according to system typologies, relevance and, probably, an increased use of functional traits. For current indices, further research on a method of intercalibration is needed. Key Message 02: BQE Fish in TW respond consistently to human pressure gradients across transitional waters providing the means to assess Ecological Status (ES). Further work will be needed to identify those specific pressures affecting fish assemblages providing targets for minimising the effects of stress in mitigation and restoration plans. Key Message 03 Although the interpretation of outcomes is still difficult, more recente transitional fish indices are leading in the use of comprehensive appraisal and validation exercises to test the performance of BQEs in the assessment of Ecological Status (ES). Further appraisal of fish indices behaviour is needed to understand the meaning of the quality outcomes, to set realistic management targets and also to identify the aspects of the índices that are more likely to affect the outcomes leading to more robust and responsive indices Key Message 04 Uncertainty levels associated with metric variability in multi-metric fish indices can be managed to increase the confidence in Ecological Status (ES) class assignment. Further research is needed to include knowledge of habitat partition within systems, to understand metrics behaviour and precision, to test new combination rules allowing metric weighting by robustness and importantly to evaluate more robust sampling tools and methods. Key Message 05 Reference conditions for BQE fish-based quality assessments can be objectively estimated using predictive modelling. Further refinements will require the use of better pressure proxies, robust metrics amenable to modelling and to account for survey design bias (effort & choice of sampling gear) at the relevant scales used in monitoring programmes.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Cross-basin and cross-taxa patterns of marine community tropicalization and deborealization in warming European seas.

Ocean warming and acidification, decreases in dissolved oxygen concentrations, and changes in primary production are causing an unprecedented global redistribution of marine life. The identification of underlying ecological processes underpinning marine species turnover, particularly the prevalence of increases of warm-water species or declines of cold-water species, has been recently debated in the context of ocean warming. Here, we track changes in the mean thermal affinity of marine communities across European seas by calculating the Community Temperature Index for 65 biodiversity time series collected over four decades and containing 1,817 species from different communities (zooplankton, coastal benthos, pelagic and demersal invertebrates and fish). We show that most communities and sites have clearly responded to ongoing ocean warming via abundance increases of warm-water species (tropicalization, 54%) and decreases of cold-water species (deborealization, 18%). Tropicalization dominated Atlantic sites compared to semi-enclosed basins such as the Mediterranean and Baltic Seas, probably due to physical barrier constraints to connectivity and species colonization. Semi-enclosed basins appeared to be particularly vulnerable to ocean warming, experiencing the fastest rates of warming and biodiversity loss through deborealization

Is the ecological status assessment result the same using genomic- and morphology-based benthic biotic indices?

Monitoring and assessment of benthic communities have been routinely undertaken using morphology-based benthic indices, among which AZTI’s Marine Biotic Index (AMBI) and multivariate-AMBI (M-AMBI), are the most successful worldwide (Borja et al., 2019). They are used officially in routine monitoring in many European countries, where they have been intercalibrated (European Commission, 2018). AMBI has been mirrored by metabarcoding, and the genomic version (gAMBI; Aylagas et al., 2014) has demonstrated to yield results comparable to the morphological version. However, we have so far failed to develop a reliable genomic version of M-AMBI (M-gAMBI), which includes gAMBI, richness and diversity (Aylagas et al., 2018). This is because richness and diversity present very different results in morphological and genomic analyses. Since the multivariate method needs reference conditions, these must be set specifically for M-gAMBI to make its results comparable to those obtained with M-AMBI. To this aim, we started annual surveys in 2018, in 22 sampling locations, in Basque estuaries and coast. We present the results from the first three years of these surveys and discuss the problems faced when developing genomic reference conditions for M-gAMBI. The findings are of paramount importance for managers, since any new method or modification of an existing assessment method, needs to demonstrate that the results obtained when assessing the status are similar to those morphological-based methods, already approved and intercalibrated.Aylagas, E., Á. Borja, N. Rodríguez-Ezpeleta, 2014. Environmental Status Assessment Using DNA Metabarcoding: Towards a Genetics Based Marine Biotic Index (gAMBI). PLoS ONE, 9: e90529.Aylagas, E., Á. Borja, I. Muxika, N. Rodríguez-Ezpeleta, 2018. Adapting metabarcoding-based benthic biomonitoring into routine marine ecological status assessment networks. Ecological Indicators, 95: 194-202.Borja, A., G. Chust, I. Muxika, 2019. Chapter Three - Forever young: The successful story of a marine biotic index. Advances in Marine Biology, 82: 93-127.European Commission, 2018. Commission Decision (EU) 2018/229 of 12 February 2018 establishing, pursuant to Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, the values of the Member State monitoring system classifications as a result of the intercalibration exercise and repealing Commission Decision 2013/480/EU. Official Journal of the European Communities, L47: 1-91

Conservación de las poblaciones de percebe (Pollicipes pollicipes, Gmelin, 1790) en la reserva marina de Gaztelucatxe (País Vasco, norte de España)

Marine protected areas are expected to play a prominent role in the conservation of marine resources and fisheries management. In the Basque Country (northern Spain) the small Marine Reserve of Gaztelugatxe (158 ha) was established in 1998. One of the aspects taken into account in protecting this area was the overexploitation of the goose barnacle Pollicipes pollicipes. Now, after five years of protection, differences in density, biomass, size and weight of the goose barnacle are investigated inside the protected area (Aketze and Gaztelugatxe locations) and outside of it, at the nearest locations (Izaro and Ogoño) which have been continuously exploited. This contribution demonstrates that the reserve could be an efficient tool in preserving the goose barnacle populations in the area. Hence, density, biomass and allometric coefficients are higher in the protected areas. These locations are also associated with higher percentages of juveniles, together with a high number of large-sized individuals.Las áreas marinas protegidas juegan un papel relevante en la conservación de los recursos marinos y la gestión de pesquerías. En el País Vasco (norte de España) se creó la pequeña (158 Ha) reserva marina de Gaztelugatxe en 1998. Uno de los aspectos más importantes para su protección fue la sobreexplotación a la que se encontraba sometido el percebe Pollicipes pollicipes. Tras cinco años de protección se llevó a cabo un estudio para investigar las diferencias en densidad, biomasa, tamaño y peso de los percebes, tanto dentro del área protegida (Aketze y Gaztelugatxe), como fuera de ella, en las cercanas localidades de Izaro y Ogoño, que han sido explotadas permanentemente. Los resultados del estudio demuestran que la reserva es una herramienta adecuada para preservar las poblaciones de percebe en la zona. Así, la densidad, biomasa y los coeficientes alométricos son mayores en las áreas protegidas. Estas zonas presentan también mayores porcentajes de juveniles y un mayor número de individuos de gran tamaño, por comparación con las zonas explotadas.

Publizitatea euskaraz egiteko interesik ba al dago?

Por su tamaño, el sector de los Medios de Comunicación Locales en euskara está en condiciones de ser un potente grupo de comunicación. Ciertamente, una facturación de 2,3 millones de euros, 500.000 lectores y 200 trabajadores son datos a tener en cuenta. Para lograr mayor fuerza, este sec-tor debería tener un funcionamiento de grupo. De esta forma se podría realizar un nuevo salto en lo que se refiere a publicidad, ofreciendo a los grandes anunciantes una red capilar que se extiende de pueblo en pueblo, dando la oportunidad de llegar hasta el último rincón. Y ésto sin perjudicar a los medios de comunicación generalistas en euskara.Euskarazko Toki Hedabideen sektorea bada tamainaz komunikazio talde indartsua izateko adinakoa. Hain zuzen, 2,3 milioi euroko fakturazioa, 500.000 irakurle eta 200 langile ez dira datu makalak. Indar handiagoa izateko talde funtzionamendua behar luke sektore honek. Horrela egingarri litzateke publizitatearen jauzi berri bat, iragarle handiei herriz herriko sare kapilarra eskainiaz eta azken zokoraino iristeko aukera emanaz. Eta hori euskarazko hedabide orokorrak kaltetu gabe.De par sa taille, le secteur des Moyens de Communication Locales en euskara est en conditions d'être un puissant groupe de communication. Une facturation de 2,3 millions d'euros, 500.000 lecteurs et 200 travailleurs sont certainement des données à prendre en compte. Pour obtenir plus deforce, ce secteur devrait avoir un fonctionnement de groupe. De cette façon on pourrait réaliser un nouveau bond en ce qui concerne la publicité, en offrant aux grands annonciateurs un réseau capillaire qui s'étendrait de village en village, donnant la possibilité d'arriver dans les coins les plus retirés. Et ce sans porter préjudice aux moyens de communication généralistes en euskara.Because of its size, the local media sector in Basque could well become a powerful communication group. Certainly, a turn over of 2,3 million Euros, 500.000 readers and 200 workers are data that are worth taking into account. To achieve a greater force, this sector should operate as a group. In this way a new leap forward could be made with respect to advertising, offering large advertisers a capillary network that spreads out from village to village, with the opportunity of being able to reach the remotest places. And all of this without prejudicing the general media in Basque

The use of benthic indicators in Europe: from the Water Framework Directive to the Marine Strategy Framework Directive

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) are the European umbrella regulations for water systems. It is a challenge for the scientific community to translate the principles of these directives into realistic and accurate approaches. The aim of this paper, conducted by the Benthos Ecology Working Group of ICES, is to describe how the principles have been translated, which were the challenges and best way forward. We have tackled the following principles: the ecosystem-based approach, the development of benthic indicators, the definition of ‘pristine’ or sustainable conditions, the detection of pressures and the development of monitoring programs. We concluded that testing and integrating the different approaches was facilitated during the WFD process, which led to further insights and improvements, which the MSFD can rely upon. Expert involvement in the entire implementation process proved to be of vital importance

Spatial and temporal response of multiple trait-based indices to natural- and induced seafloor disturbance (effluents)

To support ecosystem-based management and achieve the Good Environmental Status (GES) of marine waters it is important to better comprehend the relationships between biodiversity and environmental disturbance (anthropogenic and natural). Biotic indices are widely used in studies to help understanding these relationships and to assess the environmental status of waters. In recent years, trait-based indices rapidly emerged as an alternative ‘functional’ approach to serve this purpose. In this study, we analysed how two indices based upon the mean (community-weighted mean trait value–CWM) and the diversity of multiple traits (Rao’s quadratic entropy–Rao) in a macroinvertebrate community respond to naturaland anthropogenic seafloor disturbance (effluents) and we compared their performance with the widely used AMBI and M-AMBI. Our results demonstrate that CWM and Rao were not effective in indicating anthropogenic disturbance in the Basque coast, Bay of Biscay. The main reason was probably that many traits did not have a strong link with this type of disturbance. Besides, the mechanistic links between certain traits and their response to anthropogenic seafloor disturbance in marine environments is currently not well understood. From a management perspective: the CWM does not provide a single value indicating a quality status, which makes it a difficult tool to use and interpret. This index is probably more useful for scientists who want to explore and understand different aspects of community functioning. On the other hand, Rao and other indices expressing trait diversity do provide a single value of functioning; therefore they could potentially be effectively used for management purposes. However, to improve its performance, detailed and accurate trait data is required, which is currently lacking for many marine speciesJRC.D.2-Water and Marine Resource