A hitchhiker’s guide to European lake ecological assessment and intercalibration

The Water Framework Directive (EC 2000; WFD) is the first piece of international legislation to require European countries to establish comparable ecological assessment schemes of their freshwaters. A key element in harmonising quality classification within and between Europe’s river basins is an “Intercalibration” exercise, stipulated by the WFD, to ensure that the good status boundary in all of the biological assessment methods are comparable. In this article we provide a comprehensive overview of this international comparison, focusing on the assessment schemes developed for freshwater lakes. 82 lake ecological assessment methods were submitted for the intercalibration exercise, and 62 were successfully intercalibrated and included in the EC Decision on Intercalibration, with a high proportion of phytoplankton (18), macrophyte (17) and benthic fauna (13) assessment methods. In this article we (1) review all the assessment methods developed for lakes focusing on the metrics included and the pressures addressed; (2) summarize the process and the results of intercalibration of lake assessment methods, and (3) discuss the current gaps and the way forward to common management objectives for European lakes.

POIKANE Sandra;  BIRK Sebastian;  BOEHMER Juergen;  CARVALHO Laurence;  DE HOYOS Caridad;  GASSNER Hubert;  HELLSTEN Seppo;  KELLY Martyn;  SOLHEIM Anne Lyche;  OLIN Mikko;  PALL Karin;  PHILLIPS G;  PORTIELJE Rob;  RITTERBUSCH David;  SANDIN Leonard;  SCHARTAU Ann Kristin;  SOLIMINI Angelo;  VAN DEN BERG Marcel;  WOLFRAM Georg;  VAN DE BUND Wouter; 

2015-02-12

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

JRC87209

1470-160X,   

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X15000060,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC87209,   

10.1016/j.ecolind.2015.01.005,