Report on Harmonisation of freshwater biological methods

Annex II: Summary of the information gathered from ECOSTATand Monitoring WG on the national lake biological methodsTable 1. Summary of general characteristics of the lake biological methods employed indifferent countries (The information in this table is not complete but gather only theinformation received from the ECOSTAT WG 2A during the first half of 2004 andinformation reported in the WFD CIS Monitoring WG fact sheets).BiologicalelementPhytoplanktonAquatic plantsBenthicMacroinvertebratesFishMacro-inv.aquaticplantsPressure Country Sampling Metric AssessmentEutrophicationEutrophicationEutrophication,,acidificationEutrophicationEutrophication,acidificationEutrophication,acidificationAT, EE,FIN, IE, IT,LV, LT,NO, PT,SE, SL, SP,UKEE, DE, IE,FIN, LV,LT, SE,SL, UKIE, SE, NOUK,CY, LV,SEInterests differ Lakeareas, frequencies,qualitative orquantitative samples.Using national Std orpublished methodsDifferent strategies,influence on plants intransect from shore todeep waterDifferent samplingaccording to lakearea of interestInternational orNational StdHand net or beaker,Ekman grabNational Std (LT,SE)Chl as biomass,taxonomiccomposition,abundance andbiovolumeID to species,abundance as %coverageSpeciesabundance,presence orabsence ofsensitive speciesFamily, genus,speciesSE, SP, UK 5 different methods Applicable todifferent lakes.Most ID to speciesand abundanceUKNational Std for bothbiol.elementsMultimetric indexPSYMRef. Cond notconsidered or onlyfor limited No oflakes. None WFDcompatibleOne considers refcond. but forlimited No oflakes, mostly usedto monitorchanges. NotWFD compatibleSpeciesApplicable todifferent areas(littoral orprofundal)ref. cond. or needto develop typespecific ref. cond.,5 quality classes.2 WFDcompatibleApplicable toprofundalType specific ref.cond., 5 qualityclasses, WFDCompatibleOne with typespecies ref. cond.Good basis fordeveloping WFDcompatiblemethodsRef. Cond. forrange of env.cond. and geology.Good applicabilityto WFD. Smallstanding wateronlyAT= Austria, CY= Cyprus, DE= Germany, EE= Estonia, FIN= Finland, IE= Ireland, IT= Italy, LV=Latvia, LT= Lithuania, NO= Norway, PT= Portugal, SE= Sweden, SL= Slovenia, SP= Spain, UK=United Kingdom41