Lake Intercalibration: status of ongoing work 2008-2012

1. Lake Intercalibration: status of ongoing work 2008-2012 Sandra PoikaneJoint Research CentreInstitute for Environment and Sustainability

2. Outline • What is new ? • Overall structure • Benthic fauna • Fish • Phytoplankton and macrophytes • Summary

3. Lake IC - what's new ? • BQE groups established • Started work Benthic invertebrates and Fish fauna • Started East Cont GIG

4. GIG / BQE groups ALP CB MED NOR NOR EAST Phytoplankton Macrophytes Benthic invertebrates Fish fauna

5. GIG / BQE groups N GIG A. Pilke FI EC GIG O. Mihail RO ALP GIG ? G.Wolfram AT CB GIG M. van den Berg (NL) MED GIG J. Ortiz- Casas ES ALP CB MED NOR NOR EAST PHYTO A. Lyche Solheim NO G.Wolfram AT G.Phillips UK J.Ortiz- Casas ES A. Lyche Solheim NO G. Borics HU MACROPHYTES G.Phillips UK K.Pall AT R.Portielje NL n.a. for reservoirs S. Hellsten FI ? BENTHIC J. Boehmer DE A. Solimini JRC, IT J. Boehmer DE n.a. for reservoirs L. Sandin SE B. Csanyi HU FISH N Jepsen JRC C. Argillier FR To be decided 30 Sept – 1 Oct meeting

6. Work can be divided in 2 flows: • New work – benthic fauna and fish fauna (most active work) • Old results – phytoplankton and macrophytes (currently relax)

7. Benthic fauna - 4 groups

8. Benthic invertebrates 4 groups • Leader Juergen Boehmer (DE) • N GIG – L. Sandin (SE) • ALP GIG – A. Solimni (JRC, IT) • CB GIG – J. Boehmer (DE) • EC GIG – B. Csanyi (HU) ?

9. ALP GIG – benthic fauna • 5 MS – AT, IT, FR, SI, DE • All (except AT) have assessment methods, good data availability • Agreement on: • Criteria for compliance of national systems • Definition of refcond • Lake types and pressures • General degradation+littoral • Eutrophication + profundal • Minimum data requirement and data quality criteria

10. ALP GIG • Data collection – Oct-Nov 2008 • Pilot exercise 2009 • define the general approach to IC , • typology/pressure analysis, • common metrics test

11. N GIG – Benthic fauna Acidification • Lot of progress (pre-IC with SE and UK data) • significant delays due to data availability /quality, late delivery of MS methods • SE, UK (only clear water lakes), • NO – developing • IE, FI – no methods

12. N GIG - Benthic fauna • Plan: • Finalisation of national methdos • Further development of common metrics • Include more biological data • Results 2010

13. Work just started info on data and methods Only 2 methods Different habitats The first ideas developed N GIG Eutrophication

14. N GIG Eutrophication

15. N GIG Eutrophication The next steps • Finalize typology • Reference criteria • Collect the data • Identify the common metrics • Results 2011

16. CB GIG– Benthic fauna Work has started • Not all MS have methods, most have data • Focus on different habitats/pressures • eulittoral/general degradation (eutrophication+hydromorphology): Be/Fl, DE, EE, NL • deeper zones / eutrophication: FR • CPET (whole lake) / eutrophication: UK • undecided and no method so far: DK, LT, LV, PL

17. CB GIG - Benthic fauna Agreements on • Eulittoral zone and “general degradation” • Option 2 or 2/3 • other zones and pressures possibly later Working on: • criteria to be used to define reference conditions • criteria to be used to define pressures

18. CB GIG - Benthic fauna • Collection of data 2009 • A set of common intercalibration metrics based on normative definitions, correlations with stressors and most commonly used metrics • Intercalibration exercise 2010/2011 • Report 2011

19. Benthic fauna - overview • Work has started in 3 GIGs • Overview of methods/data • Principal decisions • Data collection started • No work in Eastern Continental GIG (so far) • No work in Mediterranean GIG (common position of LM GIG on benthic fauna - not applicable for reservoirs)

20. Benthic fauna - overview • Benthic fauna leaders meeting planned 5-6 November, Amsterdam • to discuss the progress and comparability between the GIGs

21. Fish fauna ?

22. Fish fauna • Start of work and data collection /typology • it was decided to establish a database with information of the lakes where fish data available • At now huge dataset (Cemagref, France) • Climatic, hydromorphological and physico-chemical data • from 2478 lakes in total • 1742 of these fulfilled the requirements and have been analyzed • resulted in a division into 3 types of natural lakes and two types of reservoirs

23. Fish fauna • Fish IC Meeting 30 Sep -1 Oct • Overview • AT, FI, SE, DE, NL - methods • Most – started monitoring • Some – still fish not in • Discussion - how to continue work • GIGs • Develop common European fish metric

24. PHYTOPLANKTON IC • Phytoplankton IC results just published • Cross-GIG groups established with the aim to facilitate cooperation • Phytoplankton group started the work with discussion papers (IC on full BQE level, combination rules, bloom metrics etc)

25. Phytoplankton - common issues • Full BQE intercalibration (chlorophyll-a + composition) • Not all MS and GIG have developed/IC composition metrics • Bloom metrics ?

26. MACROPHYTES • IC results just published, so at this moment no active work going on; • Cross-GIG groups established with the aim to facilitate cooperation • work with discussion papers (phytobenthos, hm pressure)

27. TYPOLOGY: • Mediterranean GIG is working to find out natural lake types • ES: most of them very small and shallow • PT: no natural lakes  • FR: very few natural lakes • IT: some small Sicilian lakes • GR: about 14 natural lakes • CY: 5 natural lakes. • RO: in EC GIG • Eastern Continental GIG has drafted lake typology

28. The main difficulties • Lack of capacity and resources in several cases • Need for new Guidance • Summarize our experience • Way forward

29. Expert work • Commitment - depend on higher administration level • ~ 3 groups of countries • Active work (NL, DE, SE, ES, AT, UK) • Participating (in some case only appearing in meetings) • Not showing up at all • Makes work slow and ineffective ! • CZ - official statement – no lakes, no IC, • but reservoirs, experts willing to work

30. Main message • Fish and benthos – work has started • Phyto and macrophytes – waiting for guideleines, new data, WISER • EC GIG – only typology so far • New guidance needed • Problem – assessment methods and involvement of the MS • How to solve it ?

31. Thank you !