Defining Chlorophyll-a Reference Conditions in European Lakes

The concept of “reference conditions” describes the benchmark against which current conditions are compared when assessing the status of water bodies. In this paper we focus on the establishment of reference conditions for European lakes according to a phytoplankton biomass indicator—the concentration of chlorophyll-a. A mostly spatial approach (selection of existing lakes with no or minor human impact) was used to set the reference conditions for chlorophyll-a values, supplemented by historical data, paleolimnological investigations and modelling. The work resulted in definition of reference conditions and the boundary between “high” and “good” status for 15 main lake types and five ecoregions of Europe: Alpine, Atlantic, Central/Baltic, Mediterranean, and Northern. Additionally, empirical models were developed for estimating site-specific reference chlorophyll-a concentrations from a set of potential predictor variables. The results were recently formulated into the EU legislation, marking the first attempt in international water policy to move from chemical quality standards to ecological quality targets

A new microsporidian parasite of the genus Amblyospora (Hazard and Oldacre, 1975) identified from the halophilic mosquito Ochlerotatus detritus (Haliday, 1833) (Diptera: Culicidae) through rDNA ITS sequencing

Ochlerotatus detritus (Haliday, 1833) from Parkgate marshes, Wirral, UK are shown to be parasitised by a new species of Amblyospora (Hazard and Oldacre, 1975) microsporidian. Phylogenetic analysis shows that Internal Transcribed Spacer sequences from this microsporidian are distinct from those of all known microsporidia identified to date, but form a clade with Amblyospora weiseri Lukeš and Vávra, 1990 and A. stictici Andreadis, 1994, microsporidia identified from Ochlerotatus cantans Meigen, 1818 and O. sticticus Meigen, 1838, respectively. Prevalence rates, from pooled samples (N = 5 per pool) were low (2.37%; lower limit 0.78%, upper limit 5.62%), which may be a consequence of these ephemeral brackish water pool habitats periodically drying out. There is increasing interest in the use of microsporidian parasites as novel vector control strategies and understanding the phenology of this microsporidian and its mosquito host may ultimately lead to new methods of control for this nuisance biting species