Developing an optimal river typology for biological elements within the Water Framework Directive

Dodkins, Ian; Rippey, Brian; Harrington, Thomas J.; Bradley, Catherine; Chatháin, Bernadette Ní; Kelly‐Quinn, Mary; McGarrigle, Martin; Hodge, Stephanie; Trigg, David

doi:10.1016/j.watres.2005.06.008

Cited by 50 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 5 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Reference conditions are best described at the scale of a river-type (Nijboer et al, 2004) and the comparison of conditions at a current site with those of a reference site belonging to the same stream-type allows an ecological quality evaluation. In short, a typology should be simple, intuitively understandable, with a minimum number of river types, whilst reducing natural variation of reference conditions within river-types (Dodkins et al, 2005). Reference sites should be viewed as the least disturbed sites within a river-type, rather than actual pristine conditions, as they rarely exist in most European countries.…”

Section: Mots-clésmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fish-based groups for ecological assessment in rivers: the importance of environmental drivers on taxonomic and functional traits of fish assemblages

Matono

Formigo

Almeida

et al. 2012

Knowl. Managt. Aquatic Ecosyst.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The use of river-types is of practical value, serving as groups for which assessment procedures can be developed and applied. An abiotic typology was set by the Portuguese Water Agency, mainly based on 6 major morphoclimatic regions. However, to be biologically meaningful, this typology should fit the distribution patterns of the biological quality elements communities proposed in Water Framework Directive under the lowest possible human pressure. This study aimed to identify and characterize fish-based geographical groups for continental Portugal and their environmental and geographical discriptors, using taxonomic and functional traits. Sampling took place between 2004 and 2006 during Spring. Fish fauna from 155 reference sites was analysed using a multivariate approach. Cluster Analysis on fish composition identified 10 fish-groups, expressing a clear correspondence to the river basin level, due to the restrict basin distribution of many species. Groups showed a wider aggregation in 4 regions with a larger geographical correspondence, statistically supported by Similarity Analysis, both on fish composition and mostly on fish metrics/guilds. Principal Components Analysis revealed major environmental drivers associated to fish-groups and fish-regions. Fish-groups were hierarchically grouped over major and local regions, expressing a large-scale response to a North-South environmental gradient defined by temperature, precipitation, mineralization and altitude, and a regional scale response mainly to drainage area and flow discharge. From North to South, fish-regions were related to the morphoclimatic regions. Results contributed to reduce redundance in abiotic river-types and set the final typology for Portuguese rivers, constituting a fundamental tool for planning and managing water resources.

show abstract

Section: Mots-clésmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fish-based groups for ecological assessment in rivers: the importance of environmental drivers on taxonomic and functional traits of fish assemblages

Matono

Formigo

Almeida

et al. 2012

Knowl. Managt. Aquatic Ecosyst.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…1], Brinson andRheinhardt 1996, Shaffer et al 1999). The mandate of the European Union Water Framework Directive (WFD) that ecological assessments must be comparable across member nations prompted several studies that assessed the effectiveness of different typologies in bioassessment (e.g., Lorenz et al 2004, Verdonschot and Nijboer 2004, Dodkins et al 2005, Ferréol et al 2005, Aroviita et al 2008, Turak and Koop 2008, especially regarding how to develop optimal typologies based on only those catchment and waterbody features that most strongly influence biota (e.g., Snelder et al 2004b, Dodkins et al 2005, Snelder and Hughey 2005, Heino and Mykrä 2006, Sánchez-Montoya et al 2007, Aroviita et al 2008. However, tests of the effectiveness of the typological approach in partitioning natural ecological variation have not produced encouraging results (Davy-Bowker et al 2006, Inglis et al 2008.…”

Section: A Brief History Of Approaches Used To Estimate Ecological Bementioning

confidence: 99%

Theoretical predictions of observed to expected ratios in RIVPACS-type predictive model assessments of stream biological condition

Yuan

2006

Journal of the North American Benthological Society

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Since catchment geomorphology and climate-related variables are often strong predictors of macroinvertebrate assemblages (Richards et al, 1996;Hawkins et al, 2000;Verdonschot and Nijboer, 2004;Chaves et al, 2005), sites within the same WFD type that were based on these factors are expected to represent relatively distinct ecological units for invertebrate communities (Verdonschot, 2006a;Sa´nchez-Montoya et al, 2007). Alternatively, in bottomup approaches, aquatic biological data are used to group similar stream sites (e.g., Wright et al, 1984;Parsons and Norris, 1996;Marchant et al, 1997;Ehlert et al, 2002;Heino et al, 2003;Lorenz et al, 2004;Dodkins et al, 2005;Sa´nchez-Montoya et al, 2007). To accomplish this purpose biotic data should be collected in reference sites since anthropogenic stress reduces natural differences between communities (Verdonschot, 2006a).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To accomplish this purpose biotic data should be collected in reference sites since anthropogenic stress reduces natural differences between communities (Verdonschot, 2006a). Additionally, there is a third combined option that consists of testing and refining physically derived classes with a subsequent or simultaneous analysis of biological data from undisturbed sites within those classes Dodkins et al, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Type-specific biological RC should clearly be distinct and natural variation must not be confounded by anthropogenic degradation. Thus, the final aim of an optimal typology in the WFD context should be to assist in accurately defining biological reference conditions and subsequent biological assessment systems to evaluate the ecological quality of stream sites beyond natural variation (European Commission, 2000;Gerritsen et al, 2000;Bailey et al, 2004;Dodkins et al, 2005). Well-defined river and stream types will reduce the likelihood of inferring impairment when it does not exist (type I statistical error) or not detecting impairment when it does exist (type II statistical error) (Hawkins et al, 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Are Water Framework Directive stream types biologically relevant? The case of the Mondego river, Portugal

Chaves

Costa

Chainho

et al. 2011

Ann. Limnol. - Int. J. Lim.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

-Typology schemes are useful in partitioning natural spatial variability and thus helping implementing bioassessment methods. They have become widely accepted in Europe after the publication of the Water Framework Directive (WFD). The major objective of this study was to test if six Portuguese predefined physical stream-types (using System-B of the WFD) are concordant with macroinvertebrate assemblages collected in 31 undisturbed sites in a Portuguese river basin. A top-down (stream types defined by physical attributes) and a bottom-up approach (river classes defined by biological communities) were used. No significant differences were found in the mean number of taxa and abundance of different physical stream types and few taxa are characteristic of specific stream types. Discriminant analysis (DA) considering family-level composition revealed that all stream-types were significantly different and the cross-validation process showed that all stream-types had more than 50% of their samples correctly assigned. On the other hand, the bottom-up approach based on a correspondence analysis (CA) showed some overlap of the macroinvertebrate communities of pre-defined stream types, indicating that variations in the macroinvertebrate community structure was primarily related to altitude, mineralisation and a temporal gradient. DA crossvalidation and CA results suggest that tested stream types do not account for natural temporal changes known to affect macroinvertebrate communities in this Mediterranean basin and that the WFD typology should account for these natural variations. The exclusion of natural variability could indicate impairment when it does not exist or no impairment when it does exist (type I and II statistical errors).

show abstract

Developing an optimal river typology for biological elements within the Water Framework Directive

Cited by 50 publications

References 5 publications

Fish-based groups for ecological assessment in rivers: the importance of environmental drivers on taxonomic and functional traits of fish assemblages

Fish-based groups for ecological assessment in rivers: the importance of environmental drivers on taxonomic and functional traits of fish assemblages

Theoretical predictions of observed to expected ratios in RIVPACS-type predictive model assessments of stream biological condition

Are Water Framework Directive stream types biologically relevant? The case of the Mondego river, Portugal

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About