1. Quantifying uncertainties in biologically-based water quality assessment: A pan-European analysis of lake phytoplankton community metrics
- Author
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Ralph T. Clarke, Geoff Phillips, Birger Skjelbred, Michael J. Dunbar, Laurence Carvalho, Anne Lyche Solheim, Stephen J. Thackeray, Caridad de Hoyos, Peeter Nõges, Martina Austoni, Agnieszka Pasztaleniec, Jordi Catalan, Bachisio Mario Padedda, Ute Mischke, Bernard Dudley, Christophe Laplace, Marko Järvinen, Kairi Maileht, Giuseppe Morabito, CENTRE FOR ECOLOGY AND HYDROLOGY LANCASTER GBR, Partenaires IRSTEA, Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA), CENTRE FOR LIMNOLOGY INSTITUTE OF AGRICULTURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES OF ESTONIAN UNIVERSITY OF LIFE SCIENCES EST, CENTRE FOR ECOLOGY AND HYDROLOGY WALLINGFORD GBR, CENTRE FOR ECOLOGY AND HYDROLOGY PENICUIK GBR, NORSK INSTITUTT FOR VANNFORSKNING OSLO NOR, CNR INSTITUTE FOR ECOSYSTEMS STUDY VERBANIA PALLANZA ITA, ENVIRONMENT AGENCY READING GBR, LEIBNIZ INSTITUTE OF FRESHWATER ECOLOGY AND INLAND FISHERIES BERLIN DEU, CENTER FOR ADVANCED STUDIES OF BLANES ESP, CENTRO DE ESTUDIOS HIDROGRAFICOS DEL CEDEX MADRID ESP, Réseaux épuration et qualité des eaux (UR REBX), Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA), University of Sassari, INSTITUTE OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION WARSZAWA POL, SYKE FINNISH ENVIRONMENT INSTITUTE JYVASKYLA FIN, and CONSERVATION ECOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES SCHOOL OF APPLIED SCIENCES DORSET GBR
- Subjects
0106 biological sciences ,EUROPE ,Linear mixed effects models ,General Decision Sciences ,Multi-model inference ,ESTIMATION INCERTITUDE ,Cyanobacteria ,010603 evolutionary biology ,01 natural sciences ,Ecology and Environment ,Water Framework Directive ,Phytoplankton ,Ecological quality assessment ,14. Life underwater ,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics ,Trophic level ,Ecology ,010604 marine biology & hydrobiology ,Variance (land use) ,Sampling (statistics) ,15. Life on land ,Eutrophication ,6. Clean water ,ANALYSE ,13. Climate action ,[SDE]Environmental Sciences ,Environmental science ,Metric (unit) ,Water quality ,Physical geography - Abstract
14 páginas, 6 figuras, 4 tablas., Lake phytoplankton are adopted world-wide as a sensitive indicator of water quality. European environmental legislation, the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD), formalises this, requiring the use of phytoplankton to assess the ecological status of lakes and coastal waters. Here we provide a rigorous assessment of a number of proposed phytoplankton metrics for assessing the ecological quality of European lakes, specifically in response to nutrient enrichment, or eutrophication, the most widespread pressure affecting lakes. To be useful indicators, metrics must have a small measurement error relative to the eutrophication signal we want them to represent among lakes of different nutrient status. An understanding of variability in metric scores among different locations around a lake, or due to sampling and analytical variability can also identify how best this measurement error is minimised. To quantify metric variability, we analyse data from a multi-scale field campaign of 32 European lakes, resolving the extent to which seven phytoplankton metrics (including chlorophyll a, the most widely used metric of lake quality) vary among lakes, among sampling locations within a lake and through sample replication and processing. We also relate these metrics to environmental variables, including total phosphorus concentration as an indicator of eutrophication. For all seven metrics, 65–96% of the variance in metric scores was among lakes, much higher than variability occurring due to sampling/sample processing. Using multi-model inference, there was strong support for relationships between among-lake variation in three metrics and differences in total phosphorus concentrations. Three of the metrics were also related to mean lake depth. Variability among locations within a lake was minimal (, This paper is a result of the project WISER (Water bodies in Europe: Integrative Systems to assess Ecological status and Recovery) funded by the European Union under the 7th Framework Programme, Theme 6 (Environment including Climate Change) (contract No. 226273), http://www.wiser.eu/.
- Published
- 2013