Posidonia

1. B U Mise en cohérence, développement, harmonisation et validation de méthodes d’évaluation de la qualité du milieu littoral par le suivi de l’herbier de Posidonia oceanica Volet: Bioindicateurs UNIVERSITAT DE BARCELONA EQEL Équipe Écosystèmes littoraux Departament d’Ecologia Posidonia

2. Water Framework Directive, WFD

3. River Basin Planning Ecological objectives Integration of surface waters & groundwater Objectives (artícle 1) Protect and enhance the status of the water environment Promote sustainable water use  Classification of Ecological Status using bioindicators

6. MS with similar types should compare EQRs UK NL Intercalibration • Intention that Good status should represent the same level of biological quality across Europe • Benchmarking exercise to be completed by 2006 using a register of IC sites Requires selection of sites at the boundary by 2004 (draft list of sites by 2003) Monitoring does not start until 2006 and most MS have still to develop their classification tools No requirement to Intercalibrate Physico-chemical

7. Objectif pour le volet “bioindicateurs”: Effectuer une intercalibration de terrain entre deux méthodes (Corse et Catalane) Méthodologie: 1. Échantillonage des deux équipes dans des sites communs (Corse et Catalogne) 2. Tri et analyse des échantillons 3. Application indépendante des protocoles à l’ensemble des sites communs 4. Comparaison des résultats, identification de points faibles et points forts, éventuelles corrections des protocoles, diagnose sur les méthodes…

8. B U POMI (Posidonia oceanica Multivariate Index): APPLICATION TO THE INTERREG-INTERCALIBRATION EXERCISE Javier Romero Marta Pérez Teresa Alcoverro Begoña Martínez Crego Departamentd’Ecologia Centre d’Estudis Avançats de Blanes UNIVERSITAT DE BARCELONA Method developped at the request and with the finantial support of:

9. 50 Km • POMI: Classification system WFD-compliant • Metrics: multimetric • Classification method: • PCA • Reference conditions: by modelisation • Boundary setting: equal parts

10. METRICS • Physiology • - Sucrose concentration in rhizomes • - P concentration in rhizomes • - N concentration in rhizome • - d15N in rhizomes • - d32S • Individual • Shoot size (leaf surface) • Leaf necrosis • (plus additional descriptors: morphometry, other metals, epiphytes…) Population Shoot density Rhizome growth form (horizontal vs. vertical) Meadow cover Community - %N in epiphytes Pollution - Pb content in rhizomes - Cu content in rhizomes - Zn content in rhizomes

11. DATA ANALYSIS Principal Components Analysis (PCA) Factor loadings Component I interpretation: Ecological “quality”

12. How to obtain EQR? • Tentatively an hypothetical reference “optimal” site is constructed • var1(ref. site)= average (three maximum values obtained for var1) • var2(ref. site)= average (three maximum values obtained for var2) • …………………………………… • varn(ref. site)= average (three maximum values obtained for varn) • An hypothetical “worst” site is constructed • var1(ref. site)= average (three minimum values obtained for var1) • var2(ref. site)= average (three minimum values obtained for var2) • …………………………………… • varn(ref. site)= average (three minimum values obtained for varn) • for those variables in which high values reflect good status (e.g. shoot density, sucrose concentration); for those in which high values reflects bad status, “maximum” was replaced by “minimum” and viceversa (e.g. N and metal concentration, percent of necrosis). • - These sites are included in the PCA analysis and represented passively

13. Good Reference (opt1, opt2) opt2 A B Descriptor 2 Descriptor 1 Bad Good opt1 Observed values (real sites) Bad

14. worst reference Disturbance Ecological status Ecological status High High Mínima Mínima Good Good Slight Slight Moderate Moderate Moderate Moderate High High Poor Poor Very high Very high Bad Bad EQR’ (site i) = [AXIS I (worst) – AXIS I (site i)] / [AXIS I (worst) – AXIS I (reference)]

15. Boundary setting (1) 1) We assume that in a water body in bad ecological status Posidonia oceanica cannot survive 2) A sampling site in which P. oceanica has disappeared will obtain (for this BQE) an EQR=0.09 The EQR is then corrected as follows EQR = (EQR’ + 0.11) / (1 + 0.10)

16. High Good Moderate Poor Bad Boundary setting (2): the Occam razor principle

17. June 2004 Boundary setting... Budget: 75.000 € year-1, 30 sites

18. June 2004 Sites d’échantillonage (Septembre 2005, ca. 15m)

19. Reference site Interreg-Posidonia intercalibration sites High/good Cat. sites Moderate/good Catalan sites

20. Meadow structure: density and cover

21. Leaves: leaf surface and necrosis

22. Nutrients: N in epiphytes, P and N in rhizomes

23. Isotopic signatures: N and S

24. Carbon balance: sucrose in rhizomes

25. Pollution indicators: Cu, Zn, Pb in rhizomes

26. Data analysis: Principal Components Analysis

27. Disturbance Ecological status Ecological status High High Mínima Mínima Good Good Slight Slight Moderate Moderate Moderate Moderate High High Poor Poor Very high Very high Bad Bad Data analysis: sites representation

28. Final results: EQR and ecological status assessment

29. Thank you for your attention!