Balance between the Reliability of Classification and Sampling Effort: A Multi-Approach for the Water Framework Directive (WFD) Ecological Status Applied to the Venice Lagoon (Italy)

Cacciatore, Federica; Bonometto, Andrea; Paganini, Elisa; Sfriso, Adriano; Novello, Marta; Parati, P.; Gabellini, Massimo; Brusà, Rossella Boscolo

doi:10.3390/w11081572

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…One of the ways of implementing the purposes of this document is assessment of ecological condition and risks that could hinder its improvement (Solimini et al, 2008;Allan, 2012). Measures of the Water Framework Directive of the EU have already been introduced for many aquatic objects of Europe: rivers (Spänhoff et al, 2012;Bilous et al, 2021;Skoulikidis et al, 2021), lakes (Søndergaard et al, 2005;Latinopoulos et al, 2021;Ntislidou et al, 2021), transitional (Pérez-Ruzafa et al, 2007;Cacciatore et al, 2019;Facca, 2020) and coastal (Giovanardi et al, 2018;Gerakaris et al, 2022) water, including river deltas (Newton et al, 2014;Stoica et al, 2014;Goulding et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of hydrotechnical construction on aquatic ecosystems of the Kiliia branch of the Danube Delta

et al. 2022

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Resumption of shipping in the Bystryi branch in the Ukrainian part of the Danube Delta, one of the largest aquatic-wetland areas of Europe and the world, has made it necessary to control the anthropogenic impact on the neighboring water areas of the Danube Biosphere Reserve. The objective of the study was comparing the compositions and structure of phytoplankton, microphytobenthos, macrophytes, benthic invertebrates and ichthyofauna of the mouth area of the Bystryi branch with such communities of the mouths of the branches Vostochnyi, Tsyhanka and Starostambulskyi, which are situated in the protected zone and characterized by limited anthropogenic activity. We also determined the correspondence of the descriptors of biotic groups to the categories of the ecological status according to the Water Framework Directive of the EU. The studies were performed in the autumn and summer periods in 2020–2021. We recorded 367 species of animals and plants, the richest biodiversity was seen for the biota of the Bystryi branch – 250 species, and 180–231 species of hydrobionts were found in the undisturbed mouths. We determined 25.3% of shared species for the water areas, and therefore high values of similarity of the species compositions according to Bray-Curtis (47.5% to 81.5%). We determined no significant differences between the groups of the mouths of the examined branches according to most indicators of taxonomic and ecological structure. As the descriptors of ecological status, we chose assemblage indices of phytoplankton and microphytobenthos, which are based on ratios of biomass of functional groups of algae, and also the Macrophyte Biological Index for Rivers, saprobic index of Zelinka & Marvan and Biological Monitoring Working Party Index of Benthic Invertebrates and Representation of Species of Ichthyfauna according to vulnerability to actions of environmental factors. We determined that the range of descriptors of phytoplankton and microphytobenthos corresponded to the “high” ecological status category, such of macrophytes and benthic invertebrates to “good”, and such of ichthyofauna varied “high” to “good”. In general, all the mouth areas were characterized by “good” ecological status. Similarities of the species composition and the structure of biotic communities of the mouths of the studied branches of the delta indicate the absence of negative impact of the deepwater shipping on adjacent ecosystems, which may be related to the peculiarities of reactions of groups in the water areas with natural stress, as well as local impact of the hydrotechnical construction.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of hydrotechnical construction on aquatic ecosystems of the Kiliia branch of the Danube Delta

et al. 2022

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“…According to the Directive 2000/60, the study area belongs to two water bodies (WsB): the polyhaline PC1-Dese and the euhaline EC-Palude Maggiore [31]. Macrozoobenthos was sampled in eight stations during the spring season before (2014) and after (2015,2016,2017) transplanting activities.…”

Section: Study Area and Sampling Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in Macrozoobenthos Community after Aquatic Plant Restoration in the Northern Venice Lagoon (IT)

Oselladore

Bernarello

Cacciatore

et al. 2022

IJERPH

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Responses of the macrozoobenthic community to an ecological restoration activity in the northern Venice lagoon were studied, within the scope of the project LIFE SEagrass RESTOration aimed at recreating aquatic phanerogam meadows largely reduced in recent decades. Transplants were successful in almost all project areas. Macrozoobenthos was sampled in eight stations before (2014) and after (2015, 2016, 2017) transplanting activities. An increase in abundance and fluctuations in richness and univariate ecological indices (Shannon’s, Margalef’s, Pielou’s indices) resulted during the years. Comparing non-vegetated and vegetated samples in 2017, every index except Pielou’s increased in the latter. Multivariate analysis (hierarchical cluster analysis, MDS, PERMDISP, SIMPER) grouped samples by localization rather than years, with differences between stations due to the abundance of common species. In 2017, results were also grouped by the presence or absence of aquatic plants, with differences in the abundance of grazer and filter-feeding species. Results of ecological index M-AMBI depicted conditions from moderate to good ecological status (sensu Dir.2000/60/EC) with similar fluctuations, as presented by univariate indices from 2014 to 2017. Responses of the macrozoobenthic community were more evident when comparing vegetated and non-vegetated samples, with the vegetated areas sustaining communities with greater abundance and diversity than non-vegetated samples, thus demonstrating the supporting function of aquatic plants to benthic communities.

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A Method to Quantify the Drainage Basin Contributions to Transitional Water Bodies: Numerical Modeling Applied to the Case Study of Venice Lagoon

Feola,

Bonometto,

Canesso

et al. 2024

Environments

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The trophic, chemical and ecological state of a lagoon is strongly influenced by numerous aspects, among which the quantity and quality of the water coming from its drainage basin are a priority. The Source-to-Sea approach directly addresses the linkages between land, water, delta, estuary, coast, nearshore and ocean ecosystems to identify appropriate courses of action to address alterations of key flows, resulting in economic, social and environmental benefits. Hydrodynamic modeling has become a fundamental tool for describing the dynamics of marine environments, and a specific field of development of ongoing research is a detailed representation of the land–coastal–sea fluxes. In the present study, a numerical modeling tool was used in the Venice Lagoon to assess and quantify dominant contributions from the river basin within specific areas of the lagoon. An advective–diffusive model was used to reproduce the transport of passive tracers. The results were analyzed using an automated computational tool, obtaining the average percentage contribution of each input from the drainage basin and mean concentrations of tracer in the different water bodies. Through the proposed methodology, it is possible to support the planning of specific measures, identifying priorities of management intervention and preliminarily exploring different scenarios.

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Balance between the Reliability of Classification and Sampling Effort: A Multi-Approach for the Water Framework Directive (WFD) Ecological Status Applied to the Venice Lagoon (Italy)

Cited by 4 publications

References 26 publications

Impact of hydrotechnical construction on aquatic ecosystems of the Kiliia branch of the Danube Delta

Impact of hydrotechnical construction on aquatic ecosystems of the Kiliia branch of the Danube Delta

Changes in Macrozoobenthos Community after Aquatic Plant Restoration in the Northern Venice Lagoon (IT)

A Method to Quantify the Drainage Basin Contributions to Transitional Water Bodies: Numerical Modeling Applied to the Case Study of Venice Lagoon

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