Response of single benthic metrics and multi-metric methods to anthropogenic pressure gradients, in five distinct European coastal and transitional ecosystems

Borja, Ángel; Barbone, Enrico; Basset, Alberto; Borgersen, Gunhild; Brkljacic, Marijana Stenrud; Elliott, Michael; Garmendia, Joxe Mikel; Marques, João Carlos; Mazik, Krysia; Muxika, Iñigo; Neto, João M.; Norling, Karl; Rodríguez, José Germán; Rosati, Ilaria; Rygg, Brage; Teixeira, Heliana; Trayanova, Antoaneta

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2010.12.009

Cited by 138 publications

(65 citation statements)

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“…Although methods to assess quality using benthic communities have already been established in the scope of the WFD, the choice of indices and reference conditions considering the variety of coastal and transitional ecosystems in Europe have been discussed by several authors (Quintino et al, 2006;Chainho et al, 2007;Dauvin, 2007;Pinto et al, 2009;Borja et al, 2011). These authors recognize that a single benthic index should be applied carefully, attending to different sensitivity of species to anthropogenic disturbance, and acknowledge that a benthic index is unlikely to be universally applicable, since organisms are not equally sensitive to natural and anthropogenic disturbance and thus are likely to respond differently to different types of disturbance.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, their response to the highly variable and unpredictable conditions of transitional systems, including estuaries and lagoons, has been indicated as a major problem since it is difficult to separate between the effects of natural and anthropogenic stress (Elliott and Quintino, 2007). Borja et al (2011) tested the use of single metrics and multi-metric methods and concluded that uncertainty associated to the use of multi-metric indices might result on misclassification, recommending that the performance and sensitivity of different metrics should be tested.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Inter-annual variations of macrobenthic communities over three decades in a land-locked coastal lagoon (Santo André, SW Portugal)

Correia

Costa

Chainho

et al. 2012

Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science

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Keywords: macrobenthic communities land-locked coastal lagoon ecological status long-term changes water framework directive a b s t r a c t Santo André is an enclosed brackish water coastal lagoon with temporary connections to the sea by a man-made channel. The exchange and mixture of saltwater and freshwater is irregular and the lagoon may show daily and seasonal fluctuations, but also long-term variation. Different benthic communities may be present along the annual cycle according to the magnitude of episodic freshwater and sea water inputs.In the last 30 years the communication with the sea has followed different regimes from year to year and, as a consequence, macrobenthic communities, assessed several times during the period before the opening to the sea, shifted from freshwater to marine affinities. Major differences were found between 1979 and 2010, with a preponderance of species with marine affinity, and the 1980s in which the organisms with freshwater affinity prevailed. Benthic communities are frequently used to assess aquatic environmental condition. Metrics used in the indices currently under discussion to assess ecological status of aquatic ecosystems within the scope of European Water Framework Directive were applied to Santo André data and the applicability of these metrics to assess quality in this coastal land-locked lagoon was discussed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inter-annual variations of macrobenthic communities over three decades in a land-locked coastal lagoon (Santo André, SW Portugal)

Correia

Costa

Chainho

et al. 2012

Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science

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show abstract

“…P71: A variety of stressor-based and effect-based indicators have been described, such as habitat attributes (e.g., May et al 1997 (watershed land cover), Jennings et al 1999 (lake shoreline substrates), Shifley et al 2008 (forest attributes)), chemical attributes (e.g., Smith and Owens 2014), metabolomic markers (e.g., Viant 2009;Van Aggelen et al 2010), and indices of the taxonomic or functional structure of communities (e.g., Norris and Georges 1993;Dolédec et al 2006;Borja et al 2011). These indicators are available for adoption by CEA practitioners wishing to associate stressors with effects on VECs 32 .…”

Section: Logical Connections Among Cea's Componentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cumulative effects assessment: theoretical underpinnings and big problems

Jones

2016

Environ. Rev.

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Cumulative effects assessment (CEA) is a sub-discipline of environmental impact assessment that is concerned with appraising the collective effects of human activities and natural processes on the environment. Aspirations for CEA have been expressed by many authors since 1969, when the foundation of environmental appraisal was laid by the US National Environmental Policy Act. This paper's purposes are (i) to review aspirations for CEA, relative to current practice; and (ii) to fully explain and critique the logic that connects CEA's operational steps and underlying philosophies. A literature review supports the following statements: Some conceptualizations emphasize the delivery of information to support decision making as the key purpose of CEA; others deem collaboration, debate, and learning as most important. Consensus on CEA's operational steps has been reached, but each step requires practitioners to make analytical decisions (e.g., about the scope of issues to include or the time horizon to consider) and objective rules for how to approach those decisions are lacking. Numerical methods for assessing cumulative effects are largely available, meaning that CEA's biggest problems are not scientific. CEA cannot succeed without substantive public engagement, monitoring, and adaptive management. CEA is best undertaken regionally, rather than project-byproject. CEA and planning are complementary, and should be merged. In its most enlightened form, CEA is a useful tool for ensuring that human undertakings ultimately conform to Earth's finite biosphere, but current practice falls short of the ideal, and CEA's logical derivation is not entirely sound. As regards CEA's big problems, sustainability has not been defined clearly enough to make criteria for judging the significance of cumulative effects indisputable; legal, regulatory, and institutional frameworks are poorly aligned for CEA; and objective criteria for judging the adequacy of CEA's scope, scale, and thresholds do not exist, which makes the question of how to provide general guidance to practitioners intractable. Recommendations call for sustainability goals to be clearly expressed as measurable targets. Furthermore, precaution in human enterprise should be exercised by avoiding, minimizing, restoring, and offsetting negative cumulative effects. CEA can assist by quantifying and optimizing trade-offs.Key words: environmental impact assessment, planning, environmental management, sustainability, conceptual model, precautionary principle.Résumé : L'évaluation des effets cumulatifs (EEC) est une sous-discipline de l'évaluation de l'impact sur l'environnement qui porte sur l'évaluation des effets collectifs des activités humaines et des processus naturels sur l'environnement. De nombreux auteurs ont exprimé leurs aspirations quant à l'EEC depuis 1969, le moment où les fondements de l'évaluation environnementale ont été jetés par le « National Environmental Policy Act » aux États-Unis. Les buts de cette étude sont (i) d'examiner les aspirations quant à...

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“…Metrics may not be sensitive to the same pressures Multimetric approaches (Rice et al, 2010;Borja et al, 2011a;Birk et al, 2012) Results are hard to communicate to managers Decision tree (Borja et al, 2004(Borja et al, , 2009b(Borja et al, , 2013 Integrating elements into a quality assessment using specific decision rules…”

Section: General Approach Details Of Methods Advantages Disadvantagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There are various other examples of multi-metric indices used to assess the status of the macrobenthos (see Borja et al, 2011a for an overview). Multimetric methods to combine multiple parameters in one assessment may result in more robust indicators, compared to indicators based on single parameters.…”

Section: Multimetric Indices To Combine Indicatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tales from a thousand and one ways to integrate marine ecosystem components when assessing the environmental status

et al. 2014

Self Cite

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Assessing the environmental status of marine ecosystems is useful when communicating key messages to policymakers or the society, reducing the complex information of the multiple ecosystem and biodiversity components and their important spatial and temporal variability into manageable units. Taking into account the ecosystem components to be addressed (e.g., biological, chemical, physical), the numerous biodiversity elements to be assessed (e.g., from microbes to sea mammals), the different indicators needed to be studied (e.g., in Europe, 56 indicators of status have been selected), and the different assessment scales to be undertaken (e.g., from local to regional sea scale), some criteria to define spatial scales and some guidance on aggregating and integrating information is needed. We have reviewed, from ecological and management perspectives, the approaches for aggregating and integrating currently available for marine status assessment in Europe and other regions of the world. Advantages and shortcomings of the different alternatives are highlighted. We provide some guidance on the steps toward defining rules for aggregation and integration of information at multiple levels of ecosystem organization, providing recommendations on when using specific rules in the assessment. A main conclusion is that any integration principle used should be ecologically-relevant, transparent and well documented, in order to make it comparable across different geographic regions.

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Response of single benthic metrics and multi-metric methods to anthropogenic pressure gradients, in five distinct European coastal and transitional ecosystems

Cited by 138 publications

References 65 publications

Inter-annual variations of macrobenthic communities over three decades in a land-locked coastal lagoon (Santo André, SW Portugal)

Inter-annual variations of macrobenthic communities over three decades in a land-locked coastal lagoon (Santo André, SW Portugal)

Cumulative effects assessment: theoretical underpinnings and big problems

Tales from a thousand and one ways to integrate marine ecosystem components when assessing the environmental status

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