Review of Methodological Standards Related to the Marine Strategy Framework Directive Criteria on Good Environmental Status

In accordance with the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD; 2008/56/EC), it is appropriate to make provision for the development of criteria and methodological standards to ensure consistency and to allow for comparison between marine regions or subregions of the extent to which good environmental status (GES) is being achieved. In this report, methodological standards are reviewed for (1) the assessment of the status of the marine environment and the determination of GES; (2) environmental targets; and (3) monitoring. Methodological standards are defined in general terms as all methods developed and agreed in the framework of European or international conventions. The screening of available methodological standards is restricted to the WFD (2000/60/EC), EQS Directive (2008/105/EC), Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), Birds Directive (2009/147/EC), CFP, and Regional Sea Conventions covering European seas (OSPAR, HELCOM, UNEP MAP, Black Sea Commission).JRC.DDG.H.5-Rural, water and ecosystem resource

Monitoring for the Marine Strategy Framework Directive: Requirements and Options

According to the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD: 2008/56/EC) coordinated monitoring programmes should be established and implemented by Member States in order to assess the environmental status of marine waters and the achievement of environmental targets. These programmes shall be compatible within marine regions or sub regions and shall integrate and complement the monitoring requirements imposed by other EU legislation and international agreements. In this report, monitoring requirements are reviewed and overlaps and gaps (including considerations on spatial scale and temporal frequency) are highlighted. The screening of monitoring requirements is restricted to the WFD (2000/60/EC), EQS Directive (2008/105/EC), Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), Birds Directive (2009/147/EC), Common Fisheries Policy and Regional Sea Conventions covering European seas (OSPAR, HELCOM, UNEP MAP, Black Sea Commission). Additionally, concepts of integrated monitoring and less applied monitoring approaches are discussed.JRC.H.1-Water Resource

In-Depth Assessment of the EU Member States’ Submissions for the Marine Strategy Framework Directive under articles 8, 9 and 10

According to the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), in 2012 Member States had to report on the initial assessment of their marine waters (art. 8), on the determination of good environmental status (art. 9) and on the establishment of environmental targets and associated indicators (art. 10). At the request of DG Environment, the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission has carried out an in-depth assessment (IDA) of the reporting done by Member States. This document presents the result of this IDA, carried out on the basis of reporting from the following Member States (MS): Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom. The aims of the IDA were: i) to evaluate comparability and coherence of methods and in particular their relation to the assessments under other European and international frames and the latest scientific evidence, ii) to provide recommendations for improved implementation of the MSFD in the second cycle (2018) and iii) to support the review and the possible revision of the Commission Decision (2010/477/EU). The IDA covers all MSFD descriptors expect D3 and D7 and is presented in six chapters (biodiversity: descriptors 1, 4 and 6; non indigenous species: descriptor 2; eutrophication: descriptor 5; contaminants: descriptor 8 and 9; marine litter: descriptor 10; underwater noise and other forms of energy: descriptor 11). This IDA presents a set of suggestions that can be pursued to strengthen the further implementation of the MSFD.JRC.H.1-Water Resource

Technical guidance on monitoring for the Marine Stategy Framework Directive

The Marine Directors of the European Union (EU), Acceding Countries, Candidate Countries and EFTA Countries have jointly developed a common strategy for supporting the implementation of the Directive 2008/56/EC, “the Marine Strategy Framework Directive” (MSFD). The main aim of this strategy is to allow a coherent and harmonious implementation of the Directive. Focus is on methodological questions related to a common understanding of the technical and scientific implications of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive. In particular, one of the objectives of the strategy is the development of non-legally binding and practical documents, such as this technical guidance on monitoring for the MSFD. These documents are targeted to those experts who are directly or indirectly implementing the MSFD in the marine regions. The document has been prepared by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC) with the contribution of experts from Member States, Regional Seas Conventions and ICES and following consultation of the Working Group on Good Environmental Status.JRC.H.1-Water Resource

Contribution to the study of biology and biochemical composition of the atlantic bonito, Sarda sarda ( bloch, 1793), in greek marine areas

Σκοπός της παρούσας διατριβής ήταν να ερευνήσει ορισμένα θέματα της βιολογίας και της βιοχημείας της παλαμίδας, Sarda sarda, σε περιοχές των ελληνικών θαλασσών και να συμβάλει στην ορθολογική διαχείριση των αποθεμάτων στη Μεσόγειο. Οι δειγματοληψίες του βιολογικού υλικού πραγματοποιήθηκαν σε περιοχές του Α. Αιγαίου, του Δ. Αιγαίου και του Ιονίου Πελάγους κατά τα έτη 1997 - 2003. Τα δεδομένα που προέκυψαν μετά από εργαστηριακή επεξεργασία αναλύθηκαν στατιστικά και έδωσαν πληροφορίες που αφορούν τις σχέσεις μορφομετρίας, την ηλικία και την αύξηση, τη γεννητική ωριμότητα, τη διατροφή και τη βιοχημική σύσταση της παλαμίδας στις ελληνικές θάλασσες. Η μορφομετρία, η ηλικία και η αύξηση και η διατροφή της παλαμίδας στις Ελληνικές θάλασσες μελετήθηκε σε 397 άτομα, μεσουραίου μήκους από 7,2 μέχρι 72,5 cm. Η μελέτη των σχέσεων μήκους - βάρους έδειξε ότι η αύξηση της παλαμίδας ακολουθεί παρόμοιο πρότυπο με αυτό άλλων περιοχών της Μεσογείου και του Α. Ατλαντικού. Η μελέτη των μορφομετρικών και μεριστικών δεδομένων έδειξε ότι δε διαφέρουν μεταξύ των τριών περιοχών και είναι παρόμοια με αυτά που έχουν καταγραφεί στη Μαύρη Θάλασσα και στη Θάλασσα του Μαρμαρά. Τα νεαρά άτομα έχουν αναλογικά μεγαλύτερη διάμετρο ματιού από τα ενήλικα. _ Η ηλικία της παλαμίδας στις ελληνικές θάλασσες εκτιμήθηκε με εξέταση τομών της πρώτης άκανθας του πρώτου ραχιαίου πτερυγίου. Η μεγαλύτερη ηλικία που αποδόθηκε ήταν 8 έτη. Η ισχυρή γραμμική συσχέτιση μεταξύ της ακτίνας της τομής και του μεσουραίου μήκους μπορεί να χρησιμεύσει στον αναδρομικό υπολογισμό του μήκους. Από την ανάλυση των περιθωριακών αποστάσεων διαπιστώθηκε ότι ένας διαφανής δακτύλιος σχηματίζεται ανά έτος την ψυχρή περίοδο. Δε βρέθηκαν σημαντικές διαφορές στις εκτιμήσεις του μέσου μήκους ανά ηλικία μεταξύ των δύο φύλων. Οι παράμετροι αύξησης που υπολογίστηκαν με τη χρήση κλείδας ηλικίας - μήκους για το σύνολο των ατόμων ήταν: L? = 82,99 K = 0,238 to = -0,772 Από τη μελέτη της γεννητικής ωριμότητας προέκυψε ότι ο γοναδοσωματικός δείκτης είναι μεγαλύτερος στα θηλυκά σε σχέση με τα αρσενικά, αλλά και στα δύο φύλα είναι μέγιστος τον Ιούνιο και ελάχιστος τον Νοέμβριο. Η μελέτη της διατροφής έδειξε ότι η παλαμίδα τρέφεται κυρίως με μικρά πελαγικά ψάρια των οικογενειών Engraulidae και Clupeidae. Παρατηρήθηκε συνολικά υψηλός δείκτης κενότητας και διακύμανση της έντασης της διατροφής στη διάρκεια του έτους με χαμηλότερες τιμές το χειμώνα και την περίοδο αναπαραγωγής και υψηλότερες την άνοιξη και το καλοκαίρι, πριν και μετά την αναπαραγωγική περίοδο αντίστοιχα. Το μέγεθος και η ποικιλία της λείας των νεαρών και των ενηλίκων ατόμων επικαλύπτονται μόνο εν μέρει, αφού τα νεαρά άτομα τρέφονται σχεδόν αποκλειστικά με μικρά πελαγικά ψάρια, ενώ τα ενήλικα περιλαμβάνουν στο διαιτολόγιό τους μεγαλύτερη ποικιλία λειών, τόσο πελαγικών όσο και βενθοπελαγικών, με μεγαλύτερο εύρος μεγεθών. Δεν βρέθηκαν σημαντικές διαφορές στη διατροφή μεταξύ αρσενικών και θηλυκών ατόμων, ούτε μεταξύ ατόμων των τριών διαφορετικών περιοχών. Η διαφοροποίηση της βιοχημικής σύστασης σε σχέση με την εποχή και το μέγεθος μελετήθηκε σε 120 ανώριμα άτομα τα οποία προέρχονται από όλη σχεδόν τη διάρκεια του έτους. Τα άτομα της ψυχρής περιόδου είχαν σημαντικά περισσότερο λίπος στο λευκό μυ, στον κόκκινο μυ και στο ήπαρ

Marine monitoring in the European Union: How to fulfill the requirements for the marine strategy framework directive in an efficient and integrated way

The Marine Strategy Framework Directive requires from European Union Member States to establish by 2014 ecological monitoring programmes covering all their marine waters and therefore extend existing monitoring and include additional elements. Principles of integrated monitoring and large scale approaches discussed in this communication could contribute to effective and cost efficient programmes.JRC.H.1-Water Resource

Intercalibration of aquatic ecological assessment methods in the European Union: Lessons learned and way forward

The Water Framework Directive requires that European Union (EU) Member States ensure that their surface waters are in at least good ecological status by 2015 or at the latest by 2027. The good ecological status objective has been described and operationally defined in the Water Framework Directive. Member States develop their own ecological assessment methods but they must demonstrate that their methods and resulting classifications are comparable to other Member States across the EU. Comparability of assessment results is determined through an intercalibration exercise, the subject of this article. In 2013 The European Commission issued an updated Commission Decision on the results of intercalibration of assessment results across Europe. We present an overview of the process, discuss critical issues and good practices, and recommend approaches for a successful completion of the exercise.JRC.H.1-Water Resource

An intercalibration exercise for benthic macrophyte indices across the Mediterranean Sea coastal lagoons

Within the transitional waters macrophyte Mediterranean Geographical Intercalibration Group (MEDGIG) of the Water Framework Directive intercalibration, three countries (France, Greece, and Italy) compared their methodologies (Exclame, EEI-c, R-MaQI, respectively) for coastal lagoons. All methods classified soft bottom benthic macrophytes (angiosperms, seaweeds) in several sensitivity groups following the concept that “anthropogenic pressure” (stress) drives the ecosystem from a pristine state, where seagrasses are dominant, to a degraded state, where opportunistic species and phytoplankton are dominant. While Greece and Italy assessed the species abundance as coverage (%) in the laboratory, France assessed the species abundance as cover (%) in the field. A database consisting of 105 taxa abundance and pressure data from 55 shallow (depth=1-3m) and vegetated (cover >10%) sites (14 in France, 20 in Greece, 20 in Italy) belonging to meso-, poly- and euhaline (salinity >5‰) coastal lagoons, either confined or not confined, has been created. The 3 methods used a similar scale at biological (species), spatial (site) and temporal (one sampling per year during spring-summer) level, enabling a direct comparison of the 3 indices at biological community level. A common pressure index based on expert judgment was calculated. Multivariate analyses (MDS, Cluster) indicated no biogeographical differences across the Mediterranean Sea. SIMPER analyses confirmed that reference “benchmark” sites communities (pressure index ≤ 6) were characterized by the dominance of angiosperm species (Cymodocea nodosa=49.9%, Ruppia cirrhosa=35.67%, Zostera noltii=10%), while “borderline” communities between good and moderate ecological status were dominated by macroalgae-cyanobacteria in coexistence with angiosperms. Due to ecosystems high natural variability and to relative low number of benchmark sites provided, it was decided to use continuous benchmarking to determine the differences between the countries. Greece appeared more precautious and adjusted its quality class boundaries by lowering both High/Good and Good/Moderate boundaries to 0.7 and 0.4, respectively (France, and Italy: H/G=0.8, G/M=0.6).JRC.H.1-Water Resource

Three hundred ways to assess Europe’s surface waters: an almost complete overview of biological methods to implement the Water Framework Directive

According to the Water Framework Directive (WFD), the status of European surface waters is assessed using aquatic organism groups. Here we present an overview of 297 assessment methods, based on a questionnaire survey addressing authorities in all countries implementing the WFD. Twenty-eight countries reported on methods applied to rivers (30 %), coastal waters (26 %), lakes (25 %) and transitional waters (19 %). More than half of the methods are based on macroscopic plants (28 %) or benthic invertebrates (26 %); in addition, phytoplankton (21 %), fish (15 %) and phytobenthos (10 %) were assessed. Countries of Central and Western Europe had developed almost all methods required for the WFD implementation. Two main sampling strategies were discernable: Small-scale sampling of the taxonomically diverse groups of benthic invertebrates and phytobenthos that demand elaborate processing, versus large-scale sampling of vast, species-poor plant stands or the mobile fish fauna. About three-quarters of methods identified organisms to species-level while in particular phytoplankton-based methods used class- or phylum-level, or included no taxonomic information. Out of nine metric types distinguished, river methods used more sensitivity and trait metrics while for other water categories abundance metrics prevailed. Fish-based methods showed the highest number of metrics. Fifty-six percent of methods focussed on the detection of eutrophication and organic pollution, with shares decreasing from autotrophic to heterotrophic organism groups: phytoplankton > phytobenthos > macroscopic plants > benthic invertebrates > fish fauna. The order was almost reverse for hydrological or morphological deterioration: fish fauna and macroscopic plants > benthic invertebrates > phytoplankton > phytobenthos. These pressures were mainly assessed by methods applied to rivers and transitional waters. The pressure-impact relationship of about one-third of methods was not tested empirically with methods for transitional waters being the least validated. The strength of relationships differed significantly between organism groups and water categories. The correlation coefficients generally covered a broad range (0.8), but on average with the pattern: phytoplankton > macroscopic plants > benthic invertebrates > phytobenthos and fish fauna. In terms of water categories the following order resulted: coastal waters > lakes > transitional waters > rivers. Status boundaries were mostly defined using statistical approaches. We advocate better reflection of the necessary sampling effort and precision, full validations of pressure-impact relationships and an implementation of more ecological components into classificationJRC.H.5-Rural, water and ecosystem resource

Three hundred ways to assess Europe's surface waters: An almost complete overview of biological methods to implement the Water Framework Directive

According to the Water Framework Directive (WFD), the status of European surface waters is assessed using aquatic organism groups. Here we present an overview of 297 assessment methods, based on a questionnaire survey addressing authorities in all countries implementing the WFD. Twenty-eight countries reported on methods applied to rivers (30%), coastal waters (26%), lakes (25%) and transitional waters (19%). More than half of the methods are based on macroscopic plants (28%) or benthic invertebrates (26%); in addition, phytoplankton (21%), fish (15%) and phytobenthos (10%) were assessed. Countries of Central and Western Europe had developed almost all methods required for the WFD implementation. Two main sampling strategies were discernable: small-scale sampling of the taxonomically diverse groups of benthic invertebrates and phytobenthos that demand elaborate processing, versus large-scale sampling of vast, species-poor plant stands or the mobile fish fauna. About three-quarters of methods identified organisms to species-level while in particular phytoplankton-based methods used class-or phylum-level, or included no taxonomic information. Out of nine metric types distinguished, river methods used more sensitivity and trait metrics while for other water categories abundance metrics prevailed. Fish-based methods showed the highest number of metrics. Fifty-six percent of methods focussed on the detection of eutrophication and organic pollution, with shares decreasing from autotrophic to heterotrophic organism groups: phytoplankton > phytobenthos > macroscopic plants > benthic invertebrates > fish fauna. The order was almost reverse for hydrological or morphological deterioration: fish fauna and macroscopic plants > benthic invertebrates > phytoplankton > phytobenthos. These pressures were mainly assessed by methods applied to rivers and transitional waters. The pressure-impact relationship of about one-third of methods was not tested empirically with methods for transitional waters being the least validated. The strength of relationships differed significantly between organism groups and water categories. The correlation coefficients generally covered a broad range (0.8), but on average with the pattern: phytoplankton > macroscopic plants > benthic invertebrates > phytobenthos and fish fauna. In terms of water categories the following order resulted: coastal waters > lakes > transitional waters > rivers. Status boundaries were mostly defined using statistical approaches. We advocate better reflection of the necessary sampling effort and precision, full validations of pressure-impact relationships and an implementation of more ecological components into classification. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved