Search results for "Water Framework Directive"
showing 10 items of 59 documents
Modelling the Effects of Climate Change on the Supply of Inorganic Nitrogen
2009
Human-induced changes in the nitrogen cycle due to the increased use of artificial fertilisers, the cultivation of nitrogen-fixing crops and atmospheric deposition have made nitrogen pollution to surface waters a long-standing cause for concern. In Europe, legislation has been introduced to minimise the risk of water quality degradation from excessive nitrogen inputs e.g., the European Union Nitrates Directive (EU, 1991), Drinking Water Directive (EU, 1998) and Water Framework Directive (EU, 2000). Coastal regions in particular have been an important focus, since coastal eutrophication has been attributed to increased fluxes of nitrogen from the landscape (Howarth et al., 1996; Boesch et al…
Zooplankton abundance: A neglected key element in the evaluation of reservoir water quality
2018
Abstract Based on our results, we propose the use of zooplankton abundance (density or biomass) as an indicator to complement the information currently being used concerning the quality of water in reservoirs. Until now, the Water Framework Directive (EU) for lakes and reservoirs has not included zooplankton because the classification of the water trophic state is based on a bottom-up model: an increase in nutrients implies an increase in primary producers and, therefore, poorer water quality. The use of zooplankton has recently been claimed due to their sensitivity to environmental changes and their control over primary producers. From our work, carried out from 2006 to 2009 (summer and wi…
Combining environmental DNA and species distribution modeling to evaluate reintroduction success of a freshwater fish
2019
Active species reintroduction is an important conservation tool when aiming for the restoration of biological communities and ecosystems. The effective monitoring of reintroduction success is a crucial factor in this process. Here, we used a combination of environmental DNA (eDNA) techniques and species distribution models (SDMs) to evaluate the success of recent reintroductions of the freshwater fish Alburnoides bipunctatus in central Germany. We built SDMs without and with eDNA presence data to locate further suitable reintroduction sites and potentially overlooked populations of the species. We successfully detected eDNA of A. bipunctatus at all reintroduction sites, as well as several a…
Macrophyte assessment in European lakes: Diverse approaches but convergent views of ‘good’ ecological status
2018
Graphical abstract
Effectiveness of Posidonia oceanica biotic indices for assessing the ecological status of coastal waters in the Saronikos Gulf (Aegean Sea, Eastern M…
2017
Biotic indices are considered key assessment tools in most national and European policies aimed at improving the quality of coastal waters. At present, several Water Framework Directive (WFD)-compliant biotic indices based on the marine angiosperm Posidonia oceanica have been developed and applied in the Mediterranean Sea. In this study, we investigated the effectiveness of four different P. oceanica indices (POMI, PREI, Valencian CS, and BiPo) in evaluating the ecological status of coastal waters in a case study area of Greece. The evaluation, comparison, and validation of the Ecological Status Class (ESC) assessments obtained by each index were based on a set of eight common sites that en…
Macrophytes in boreal streams: Characterizing and predicting native occurrence and abundance to assess human impact
2016
Abstract Macrophytes are a structurally and functionally essential element of stream ecosystems and therefore indispensable in assessment, protection and restoration of streams. Modelling based on continuous environmental gradients offers a potential approach to predict natural variability of communities and thereby improve detection of anthropogenic community change. Using data from minimally disturbed streams, we described natural macrophyte assemblages in pool and riffle habitats separately and in combination, and explored their variation across large scale environmental gradients. Specifically, we developed RIVPACS-type models to predict the presence and abundance of macrophyte taxa at …
Biological indices applied to benthic macroinvertebrates at reference conditions of mountain streams in two ecoregions (Poland, the Slovak Republic)
2013
The study was carried out from 2007 to 2010 in two ecoregions: the Carpathians and the Central Highlands. The objectives of our survey were to test the existing biological index metric based on benthic macroinvertebrates at reference conditions in the high- and mid-altitude mountain streams of two ecoregions according to the requirements of the EU WFD and to determine which environmental factors influence the distribution of benthic macroinvertebrates. Our results revealed statistically significant differences in the values of the physical and chemical parameters of water as well as the mean values of metrics between the types of streams at the sampling sites. RDA analysis showed that the t…
The use of zooplankton metrics to determine the trophic status and ecological potential: An approach in a large Mediterranean watershed.
2021
In the European Water Framework Directive, zooplankton was not included as a Biological Quality Element despite its important place in the aquatic trophic web. In the present study on zooplankton abundances and biomasses, we used several metrics to test their ability to detect differences among trophic statuses and ecological potential levels, and collected a large sum of data in more than 60 reservoirs at Ebro watershed, on more than 300 sampling occasions over 10 years. Our results indicate that most zooplankton metrics are correlated to environmental variables that determine reservoirs’ trophic states, especially chlorophyll a and total phosphorus. The metrics with better sensitivity to …
A practical approach to improve the statistical performance of surface water monitoring networks
2019
The representativeness of aquatic ecosystem monitoring and the precision of the assessment results are of high importance when implementing the EU’s Water Framework Directive that aims to secure a good status of waterbodies in Europe. However, adapting monitoring designs to answer the objectives and allocating the sampling resources effectively are seldom practiced. Here, we present a practical solution how the sampling effort could be re-allocated without decreasing the precision and confidence of status class assignment. For demonstrating this, we used a large data set of 272 intensively monitored Finnish lake, coastal, and river waterbodies utilizing an existing framework for quantifying…
Economic valuation of environmental benefits from wastewater treatment processes: An empirical approach for Spain
2009
Economic research into the design and implementation of policies for the efficient management of water resources has been emphasized by the European Water Framework Directive (Directive 2000/60/EC). The efficient implementation of policies to prevent the degradation and depletion of water resources requires determining their value in social and economic terms and incorporating this information into the decision-making process. A process of wastewater treatment has many associated environmental benefits. However, these benefits are often not calculated because they are not set by the market, due to inadequate property rights, the presence of externalities, and the lack of perfect information…