Report on the application of phytoplankton index NMASRP for reservoirs in Greece

Assessment methods had been intercalibrated for lake types LM 5/7 (deep siliceous reservoirs) and LM 8 (deep calcareous reservoirs) (de Hoyos et al. 2014). In the first round of IC that Greece participated, boundaries for individual phytoplankton metrics (chlorophyll-a, total biovolume, percentage of cyanobacteria, IGA and MedPTI) were agreed (using option 1 of IC) and formally included in the 200 8 EC Intercalibration Decision. During the second round of IC, national assessment methods based on the above metrics (NMASRP for Cyprus and Portugal, MASRP for Spain and NITMET for Italy) were intercalibrated for LM 5/7 and LM 8 types. Greece had not started the operation of the monitoring network at that time, and thus had not submitted its national assessment method for the second round of IC. The operation of the Greek monitoring network started in 2012, following the publication of a Joint Ministerial Decision in 2011. Fifty lake water bodies have been included in the monitoring network, out of which 15 are LM 5/7 and 5 are LM 8 reservoirs. The national phytoplankton assessment method applied for Greek LM 5/7 and LM 8 reservoirs is the New Mediterranean Assessment System for Reservoirs Phytoplankton (NMASRP), that has been intercalibrated in the Med GIG, as applied by Cyprus and Portugal (i.e. the metric percentage of cyanobacteria is replaced by the metric biovolume of cyanobacteria, in order to account for algal blooms) (de Hoyos et al. 2014). Spain uses MASRP (i.e., with the metric percentage of cyanobacteria). NMASRP addresses eutrophication pressure in Mediterranean reservoirs. This report does not discuss the development of new or revised ecological assessment method for phytoplankton according to finalized IC results, but the application of the existing NMASRP phytoplankton assessment method as intercalibrated in the Med GIG (including existing MEP values and EQRs), into the national dataset. NMASRP values are calculated as annual mean. This dataset contains data collected during the 2012-2015 sampling campaign, and in particular 53 NMASRP values for LM 5/7 and 18 NMASRP values for LM 8 reservoirs arising from 139 and 56 samplings, respectively

Report on the development of the national method for the assessment of the ecological status of natural lakes in Greece, using the biological quality element “phytoplankton”

This report discusses the development of a national method for the assessment of ecological status of natural lakes in Greece, based on the Biological Quality Element (BQE) “phytoplankton”; it is a revised version of the 2016 report, following comments by JRC and Intercalibration Review Panel experts. The main changes include an amendment to modNygaard index (exclusion of Centrales, see 2.1), the exclusion of a lake’s data from the reference dataset in order to avoid ircularity in the assessment, and construction of pressure response curves with phytoplankton and TP data from lake years 2014 and 2015. At the Mediterranean Lake Geographical Intercalibration Group, Member States defined two common water body types for reservoirs (L-M5/7 and L-M8). In spite of common efforts, within the Mediterranean GIG, there was no possibility to intercalibrate natural Mediterranean lakes because of the absence of common types with enough lakes. As a result, no assessment methods for phytoplankton of natural lakes have been intercalibrated within the Med GIG. The operation of the Greek water monitoring network started in 2012, following the publication of a Joint Ministerial Decision in 2011 and comprises 23 natural lakes. The development of the current assessment method, as described in this report, is based on the data from this national water monitoring network. Natural lakes in Greece are grouped into 3 types: 1) warm monomictic, deep natural lakes with mean depth >9 m (type GR-DNL, 7 lakes), 2) polymictic, shallow natural lakes with mean depth 3-9 m (type GR-SNL, 8 lakes), 3) very shallow lakes < 3 m (type GR-VSNL, 8 lakes)

A new WFD—compliant littoral macroinvertebrate index for monitoring and assessment of Mediterranean lakes (HeLLBI)

Mavromati, E., Kemitzoglou, D., Tsiaoussi, V. et al. A new WFD—compliant littoral macroinvertebrate index for monitoring and assessment of Mediterranean lakes (HeLLBI). Environ Monit Assess 193, 745 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-021-09493-1benthic macroinvertebrates is presented in this paper for classification of Greek natural lakes, in compliance with the requirements of Water Framework Directive (WFD). The method was developed based on the collection of littoral benthic invertebrate fauna and environmental data from 109 sampling sites in 21 natural lakes of the Greek National Water Monitoring Network. We focused the analysis on the effects of shore morphological alterations and eutrophication to the littoral invertebrate fauna, identified to family level, except oligochaetes, which were identified as a class, and more particularly to taxonomic composition and abundance, to taxa sensitivity,and to richness/diversity. Three metrics were included in the multimeric index: the relative abundance of Odonata classes, the Average Score per Taxon, and the Simpson’s diversity index. The metrics were converted to ecological quality ratios and ecological class boundaries were defined. The final multimetric index HeLLBI is expressed as an arithmetic average of normalized ecological quality ratios of the above metrics and a final score was assigned to each lake. Pressureresponse relationships of HeLLBI scores were statistically tested for morphological alterations, expressed as percentage of artificial shoreline, and eutrophication, expressed as total phosphorus. The HeLLBI scores correspond to ecological classes, according to WFD, and sampling sites with different ecological status contained distinct biological communities; those at high status where more diverse and with sensitive taxa and as the water quality deteriorated, macroinvertebrate assemblages consisted of fewer and more tolerant to degradation taxa. The HeLLBI method gave a reliable assessment of littoral benthic invertebrate fauna of Greek natural lakes and could be a useful tool for the classification of ecological status of other Mediterranean lakes

Report on the development of the national method for the assessment of ecological status of natural lakes in Greece, with the use of littoral benthic invertebrates

This report discusses the development of a national method for the assessment of ecological status of natural lakes in Greece, based on the Biological Quality Element (BQE) “Benthic Invertabrate Fauna” from the littoral zone, the Hellenic assessment method for Lake Littoral Benthic invertebrate fauna (HeLLBI). Most lake assessment methods based on benthic macroinvertebrates to date, evaluate eutrophication and acidification; fewer methods assess morphological pressures on lake ecosystems and they are mostly based on benthic macroinvertebrates from the littoral zone (Poikane et al., 2016). Greece has a national method for zoobenthos from the profundal zone (GLBiI - Greek Lake Benthic invertebrate Index), that addresses eutrophication, which is included in the 2018 Intercalibration Decision [Commission Decision (EU) 2018/229] (Ntislidou et al., 2018). The development of the current assessment method, as described in this report, is based on data from the national water monitoring network. In particular, 109 littoral sampling sites in 21 lakes (29 lake years) have been surveyed for benthic invertebrates during the 2015-2018 sampling campaign. Natural lakes in Greece are grouped into 3 types, according to the mixing regime and depth gradient1. As the sampling took place in the littoral zone, data from all lake types were pooled in the dataset. The HeLLBI method consists of metrics indicative of taxonomic composition and abundance, sensitivity/tolerance of taxa and taxa diversity. It addresses morphological alteration and eutrophication pressures

Benthic macroinvertebrate communities in the littoral zone of Greek lakes

Patsia A., D. Kemitzoglou, E. Mavromati, and V. Tsiaoussi. 2023. Benthic macroinvertebrate communities in the littoral zone of Greek lakes. 19th World Lake Conference, Balaton, Hungary, 7-9 November 2023. Poster presentationGreek natural lakes are discerned into three categories according to depth: very shallow lakes (GR-VSNL, mean depth9 m) (Kagalou et al., 2021). Lake zoobenthos is regularly examined for the classification of ecological status according to Water Framework Directive (WFD) (EU, 2000). Research objectives are to present the benthic macroinvertebrate communities in the Greek natural lakes, classify their ecological status & to investigate potential differences in benthic macroinvertebrate communities according to lake depth

Setting the Phosphorus Boundaries for Greek Natural Shallow and Deep Lakes for Water Framework Directive Compliance

Kagalou I, C. Ntislidou, D. Latinopoulos, D. Kemitzoglou, V. Tsiaoussi, and DC Bobori. 2021. Setting the Phosphorus Boundaries for Greek Natural Shallow and Deep Lakes for Water Framework Directive Compliance. Water 13(5):739. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13050739Eutrophication caused by nutrient enrichment is a predominant stressor leading to lake degradation and, thus, the set-up of boundaries that support good ecological status, the Water Framework Directive’s main target, is a necessity. Greece is one of the Member States that have recorded delays in complying with the coherent management goals of European legislation. A wide range of different statistical approaches has been proposed in the Best Practice Guide for determining appropriate nutrient thresholds. To determine the nutrient thresholds supporting the good status of natural Greek lakes, the phytoplankton dataset gathered from the national monitoring programme (2015–2020) was used for shallow and deep natural lakes. The regression analyses were sufficient and robust in order to derive total phosphorus thresholds that ranged from 20 to 41 μg/L in shallow and 15–32 μg/L in deep natural lake types. Nutrient boundaries that encompass the stressors these lakes are subject to, are essential in proper lake management design

BioScore: A tool to assess the impacts of European Community policies on Europe's biodiversity

BioScore offers a European biodiversity impact assessment tool. The tool contains indicator values on the ecological preferences of more than 1000 species of birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, fish, butterflies, dragonflies, aquatic macro-invertebrates and vascular plants. These values are linked to policy-related pressures and environmental variables

Water Framework Directive Intercalibration Technical Report. Mediterranean Lake Phytoplankton ecological assessment methods

One of the key actions identified by the Water Framework Directive (WFD; 2000/60/EC) is to develop ecological assessment tools and carry out a European intercalibration (IC) exercise. The aim of the Intercalibration is to ensure that the values assigned by each Member State to the good ecological class boundaries are consistent with the Directive\u27s generic description of these boundaries and comparable to the boundaries proposed by other MS. In total, 83 lake assessment methods were submitted for the 2nd phase of the WFD intercalibration (2008-2012) and 62 intercalibrated and included in the EC Decision on Intercalibration (EC 2013). The intercalibration was carried out in the 13 Lake Geographical Intercalibration Groups according to the ecoregion and biological quality element. In this report we describe how the intercalibration exercise has been carried out in the Mediterranean Lake Phytoplankton group