WISER Deliverable D3.3-2: The importance of invertebrate spatial and temporal variation for ecological status classification for European lakes

European lakes are affected by many human induced disturbances. In principle, ecological theories predict that the structure and functioning of benthic invertebrate assemblage (one of the Biological Quality Elements following the Water Framework Directive, WFD terminology) change in response to the level of disturbances, making this biological element suitable for assessing the status and management of lake ecosystems. In practice, to set up assessment systems based on invertebrates, we need to distiguish community changes that are related to human pressures from those that are inherent natural variability. This task is complicated by the fact that invertebrate communities inhabiting the littoral and the profundal zones of lakes are constrained by different factors and respond unevenly to distinct human disturbances. For example it is not clear yet how the invertebrates assemblages respond to watershed and shoreline alterations, nor the relative importance of spatial and temporal factors on assemblage dynamics and relative bioindicator values of taxa, the habitat constraints on species traits and other taxonomic and methodological limitations. The current lack of knowledge of basic features of invertebrate temporal and spatial variations is limiting the fulfillment of the EU-wide intercalibration of lake ecological quality assessment systems in Europe, and thus compromising the basis for setting the environmental objectives as required by the WFD. The aim of this deliverable is to provide a contribution towards the understanding of basic sources of spatial and temporal variation of lake invertebrate assemblages. The report is structured around selected case studies, manly involving the analysis of existing datasets collated within WISER. The case studies come from different European lake types in the Northern, Central, Alpine and Mediterranean regions. All chapters have an obvious applied objective and our aim is to provide to those dealing with WFD implementation at various levels useful information to consider when designing monitoring programs and / or invertebrate-based classification systems

Contrasting GDSSs and GSSs in the context of strategic change : implications for facilitation

This paper reports on research undertaken within the context of two sets of computer supported strategy workshops. Each of the series of five one—day workshops were designed within the context of a project aimed at planning and implementing major strategic change within the organisation. In these workshops the SODA methodology was used in conjunction with the multiple workstation system allowing all participants to interact with the modelling process, and, in addition, with a number of manual techniques which were designed to interface with the methodology. Thus “manual group support” (MAGS) was used alongside, and interacting with, both 'Single user group support” (SUGS) and “multi-user group support “(MUGS). The purpose of this paper is to report on a comparison between two series of events. The comparison is set as a set of implications which differentiate, in important ways, the role of a facilitator using group support systems (GSS) to their role in the use of group decision support systems (GDSS). The project reported in this paper involved over fifty senior managers during a two—year period. The project enabled a number of exceptional opportunities to be tapped including i) a researcher as observer throughout the process, ii) video taping every one—day meeting, and iii) in—depth interviews of one—third of the participants. The subjects of the research had to deal with the reality of an organisational history, and, even more importantly, the knowledge that their contributions to the meetings would influence their future as a manager. The conclusions may be taken as a contribution to the design and facilitation of each type of meeting, and to the effective design of the each of the systems (GSS and GDSS). The research raises issues about whether systems should be designed to operate in both Group Support and Group Decision Support modes, or whether it is more appropriate to design specifically for one or the other purpose