Harmonisation of a new assessment method for estimating the ecological quality status of Greek running waters

Λαζαρίδου, Μαρία; Ntislidou, Chrysoula; Karaouzas, Ioannis; Skoulikidis, Nikolaos Th.

doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2017.09.032

Cited by 40 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Variation of biological quality in the olive mill wastewaters receiving tributary (Kotitsanis stream) upstream and downstream of the olive mill outlet during 2 years of monitoring. The biological quality of the sites was estimated with the HESY2 Index (Lazaridou, Ntislidou, Karaouzas, & Skoulikidis, ) [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]…”

Section: Combined Effects Of Drought and Pollution On The Evrotas Aqumentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of the effects of pollution and water scarcity on the stream biota of an intermittent Mediterranean basin

Karaouzas

Theodoropoulos

Vardakas

et al. 2018

River Research & Apps

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This review presents the main results of a 10-year research study conducted in a Mediterranean intermittent basin (Evrotas River). By assembling the main outcomes of past and ongoing research projects, this study provides an overview of multiple stressor effects, with emphasis on water scarcity, focusing on hydro-biogeochemical processes, as well as on spatial and temporal variations in benthic macroinvertebrates and fish fauna. The major impact in the basin has been the over-exploitation of surface and groundwater resources, which, in combination with droughts, has resulted in the recurrent artificial desiccation of large parts of the hydrological network. The response to intermittency of the macroinvertebrate fauna is characterized by high resilience through various drought-resistant evolutionary mechanisms, with assemblages recovering successfully after recurrent droughts. However, when pollution is evident in combination with drought, effects on benthic species richness, abundance, and assemblage structure can be severe. Similarly, pollution and water stress may result in massive fish mortalities due to hypoxic conditions, with fish populations requiring long periods to recover. However, the fish fauna appears to be relatively resilient to drought-driven reach-scale desiccation, and ultimately recovers, provided that aquatic refugia are available to supply colonists and that there are no physical barriers impeding recolonisation.Appropriate conservation measures are urgently required to address the effects of recurrent bouts of water stress, as well as of other stressors on the freshwater communities of the Evrotas River, both at the level of water management and of water policy and at the local and the national level. It has long been acknowledged that such extreme climatic conditions of water scarcity and prolonged droughts influence both the physicochemical and the ecological status of water bodies (Barceló & Sabater, 2010). Extended low-flow periods result in increased water temperatures, which may rapidly equilibrate with the ambient terrestrial environment and cause modified evaporation patterns (Hamilton, Bunn, Thoms, & Marshall, 2005) and irregular pool-riffle succession. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Section: Combined Effects Of Drought and Pollution On The Evrotas Aqumentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of the effects of pollution and water scarcity on the stream biota of an intermittent Mediterranean basin

Karaouzas

Theodoropoulos

Vardakas

et al. 2018

River Research & Apps

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“…The multimetric index STAR_ICMi was selected as the most appropriate one, since it showed pressure-response relationships to a number of pressures (NO 3 -N, PO 4 -P, CAPi). The Hellenic Evaluation System 2 (Lazaridou et al, 2018), however, which was successfully intercalibrated for other river types in Greece (R-M1, R-M2, R-M4, R-M5), did not qualify for the classification of very large rivers, because it did not respond statistically to pressures at this river type. This could be attributed to the specific characteristics of HESY2 (e.g., its habitat standardization; Lazaridou et al, 2018), which require a strict adherence to the multihabitat sampling protocol.…”

Section: The Greek Classification Methods For Very Large Riversmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Hellenic Evaluation System 2 (Lazaridou et al, 2018), however, which was successfully intercalibrated for other river types in Greece (R-M1, R-M2, R-M4, R-M5), did not qualify for the classification of very large rivers, because it did not respond statistically to pressures at this river type. This could be attributed to the specific characteristics of HESY2 (e.g., its habitat standardization; Lazaridou et al, 2018), which require a strict adherence to the multihabitat sampling protocol. In very large rivers, however, samplings were mainly conducted at the riverbanks, and thus habitat standardization was not applicable.…”

Section: The Greek Classification Methods For Very Large Riversmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Oligochaeta are considered pollution-tolerant taxa and have low scores in most national assessment methods (e.g., HESY2, BMWP, and IBMWP). Gammaridae occur in all Greek river types with permanent flow (R-M1, R-M2, R-M3, and R-M4) and have particularly higher abundances in rivers at moderate status (Lazaridou et al, 2018). They are further considered as tolerant to moderate pollution levels according to HESY2 (Lazaridou et al, 2018) and other national indices, e.g., BMWP (Armitage et al, 1983) and IBMWP (Alba-Tercedor et al, 2002).…”

Section: Biological Communities In Very Large Riversmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Harmonization of the assessment method for classifying the ecological quality status of very large Greek rivers

Λαζαρίδου

Ntislidou

Karaouzas

et al. 2018

Knowl. Manag. Aquat. Ecosyst.

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The intercalibration exercise is required by the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) to harmonize the national ecological class boundaries across Member States. It is applied to individual types of water bodies, comparing WFD-compliant biological assessment methods using specific quality elements. This study addresses the harmonization of the STAR_ICMi index for the ecological status assessment of very large Greek rivers in compliance with the completed intercalibration exercise for European very large rivers. River sites were sampled biannually for benthic invertebrates (as biological quality element) and environmental data during different surveys. The water quality of the samples ranged from high to bad. STAR_ICMi was significantly correlated to the Combined Abiotic Pressure index (CAPi) and its component pressures channelization, riparian vegetation alteration, and to a lesser extent to organic pollution. During the intercalibration approach benchmark standardization was applied to the component metrics of the intercalibration index prior to boundary comparison to minimize typological differences. The Greek class boundaries of high/good and good/moderate ecological status were compared and harmonized with the “Global Mean View” defined in the completed European intercalibration exercise. Similarity percentage analysis of biological community variation was performed for sites in high, good, and less than good ecological status according to the intercalibrated Greek classification.

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“…During the First Cycle of Management, all RBMPs had identifed the significant pressures from point sources, diffuse sources, water abstraction sources, groundwater abstractions, flow regulation and morphological alterations, saline intrusion, artificial recharge, land cover and population density, and other pressures [8,9]. Since then, numerous research approaches [11][12][13][14][15] have tried to promote the River Basin Management Plans (RBMPs) of the WFD implementation process by developing methods for the monitoring and assessment of rivers' ecological status, by taking into account objective indicators demonstrative for hydromorphological, water physicochemical, and biological elements [16,17]. Seasonal or more frequent water sampling, hydromorphological analysis, identification of pollution patterns and sources (mainly through land cover/use analysis) and advanced statistical elaborations are some of the available tools that have been extensively used in order to determine the most water quality-relevant and significant environmental variables.In Greece, water quality and hydromorphological monitoring of all river and catchment sizes is systematically implemented on the last decades compared to other countries [18].…”

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confidence: 99%

Water Quality and Hydromorphological Variability in Greek Rivers: A Nationwide Assessment with Implications for Management

Stefanidis

Papaioannou

Markogianni

et al. 2019

Water

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European rivers are under ecological threat by a variety of stressors. Nutrient pollution, soil erosion, and alteration in hydrology are considered the most common problems that riverine ecosystems are facing today. Not surprisingly, river monitoring activities in Europe have been intensified during the last few years to fulfil the Water Framework Directive (WFD) requirements. With this article, we present a nationwide assessment of the water quality and hydromorphological variability in Greek Rivers based on the results of the national monitoring program under the WFD. Water quality and hydromorphological data from 352 sites belonging to 221 rivers were explored with principal component analysis (PCA) to identify main environmental gradients and the variables that contribute the most to the total variance. Nitrate, phosphate, ammonium and electrical conductivity were identified as the most important water chemistry parameters, and typical vector-based spatial data analysis was applied to map their spatial distribution at sub-basin scale. In addition, we conducted simple linear models between the aforementioned parameters and the share of land uses within the basin of each sampling site in order to identify significant relationships. Agriculture was the most important land use affecting the nitrate and electrical conductivity, while artificial surfaces were the best predictor for phosphate and ammonium. Concerning the hydromorphological variability, fine types of substrate and discharge were the variables with the highest contribution to the total variance. Overall, the results of this article can be used for the preliminary assessment of susceptible areas/rivers to high levels of nutrient pollution that can aid water managers to formulate recommendations for improvement of further monitoring activities. Furthermore, our findings implicate the need for enhancement of agri-environmental measures and reduction of point-source pollution in disturbed areas to avert the risk of further environmental degradation under the anticipated global change.The implementation of the WFD relies on the measures proposed by the River Basin Management Plans (RBMPs) and the Programmes of Measures (PoMs) of river reconstruction, rehabilitation or restoration [4]. Quality elements for assessment are divided into biological, hydromorphological, and physicochemical, and for each one, a descriptive definition of high, good, moderate, poor, and bad status is given. Each National authority should set standards for those elements most relevant to the pressures faced by the water body under its responsibility and classify waters accordingly [2]. Across EU Member States discussions are on-going as to how to integrate climate change into the process of RBMPs for the next management cycles (2015-2027) of the WFD [1]. A key challenge in this context is the adaptation to climate change impacts through the design and implementation of PoMs at the river basin scale [5][6][7].Since the second WFD implementation cycle had ended in 2015 [8,9], several ...

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Harmonisation of a new assessment method for estimating the ecological quality status of Greek running waters

Cited by 40 publications

References 43 publications

A review of the effects of pollution and water scarcity on the stream biota of an intermittent Mediterranean basin

A review of the effects of pollution and water scarcity on the stream biota of an intermittent Mediterranean basin

Harmonization of the assessment method for classifying the ecological quality status of very large Greek rivers

Water Quality and Hydromorphological Variability in Greek Rivers: A Nationwide Assessment with Implications for Management

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