Welcome to

Assessment of ecological status according to the Water Framework Directive – intercalibration among Western-Balkan countries

kickoff July 2015

Project partners

1. Hydrobiological Institute, Macedonia

2. Agricultural University Tirana, Albania

3. Institute of Hydrometeorology and Seismology, Montenegro

4. University of Belgrade, Faculty of Biology, Serbia

5. NIVA and NMBU, Norway

funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The application: project goals

1. to establish common and comparable methods for investigating macrophytes, diatoms, macroinvertebrates, water chemistry and external nutrient input into lakes in all participating countries

2. to study unimpacted lakes (reference lakes), in order to agree on a standard against which flora and fauna of impacted lakes can be compared

3. to study some slightly and some heavily impacted lakes using the same methods as in 1 and 2, in order to show that the established methods actually work

polluted

not polluted

Why do we want to do this?? background of the project

Background:

Developing biological tools for the Water Framework Directive in Lake Ohrid

project funded by Norway, 2009 – 2013

sustainable management

agreement between countries

pollution will always affect the whole lake, and not stop at political borders

Lake Ohrid

Developing biological tools for Lake Ohrid

very good

good

moderate

poor

bad

ECOLOGICAL

STATUS

index at reference site

index at reference site

index at sampling site

index at sampling site

What we have not achieved ...

?

?

Developing biological tools for Lake Ohrid

Western Balkan: ecological status

• solution: look for comparable lakes, which are unpolluted

• if you do not have such lakes in your country collaborate with your neighbours

Albania

Macedonia

MacedoniaAlbani

a

Serbia

Montenegro

Study lakes (proposal)

Macedonia/Albania:• Lake Ohrid, slightly polluted • Lake Prespa, pollutedMontenegro:• Black Lake, unpolluted (reference lake)• Biogradsko Lake, unpolluted (reference lake)Serbia:• Savsko jezero reservoir (Sava lake); pollutedAlbania:• one additional unpolluted or only slightly polluted

lake in the Lura lakes area

6 sites in each lake

Bioindication may be a little tricky => the scientific goal of our project

The Lake Ohrid ecosystem

very good

good

moderate

poorbad

PP

The Lake Ohrid ecosystem

PP

The Lake Ohrid ecosystem

Developing biological tools for Lake Ohrid

„bonus“ project goals

polluted

not polluted

plus: draw maps with R, instead of ENSIS

Sediment-P(certain sediment-P fractions may be related to nutrient input/availability)

BenthoTorch for measuring benthic algal biomass

Task list for this workshop

1. Intro

2. presentation of proposed lakes discussion: suitable? Selection of sites?

3. Nutrient-input, the landward side of the littoral: discussion field work: which parameters are important to note?

4. field work: when?

5. project website

6. group work: diatoms, macrophytes, macroinvertebrates, chemistry; all: discuss methods, intercalibration among countries chemistry: can we measure sediment phosphorus?

7. summary group work

Summer:

Autumn? Spring?

Assessment of ecological status according to the Water Framework Directive –

Ideas are welcome !

Western Balkan: ecological status

Study lakes

Study lakes (proposal)

Macedonia/Albania:• Lake Ohrid, slightly polluted • Lake Prespa, pollutedMontenegro:• Black Lake, unpolluted (reference lake)• Biogradsko Lake, unpolluted (reference lake)Serbia:• Savsko jezero reservoir (Sava lake); pollutedAlbania:• one additional unpolluted or only slightly polluted

lake in the Lura lakes area

Þ 6 sites in each lake

Western Balkan: ecological status

Study lakes

• Presentation of proposed lakes• Discussion: are all lakes suitable? Yes. Hydrology

is probably different, but we should just be aware of it and try anyway

• How do we get there? 5 lakes accessible by car, Lura lake a bit difficult, but Magda will find out in 2015

• Do we need a boat? Ohrid and Prespa OK, Sava small boat, Lura and Montenegro (Pavle will check): small rubber boat or local boat

• Accomodation? Ohrid OK, Prespa: OK (hotel), Sava OK, Lura: small hotel nearby, Montenegro: lodges nearby

• Are 6 sites per lake OK? Yes• Place sites NOT at inlets or outlets, choose

homogeneous stretches, use clear name for each site and DO NOT CHANGE THE NAME LATER, take GPS coordinates at the shoreline. OK. Susi will send reminder email to team leaders, and ask for a proposal of sites before summer 2016

Western Balkan: ecological status

General issues about field work

Field work

Field work:

• how often?• when?• all together?• which lakes in which years?• sampling depth?

Field work

Once?

Two times?

Field work:

• how often?• when?• all together?• which lakes in which years?• sampling depth?

Field work

Summer:2 last weeks in July?

Autumn? Spring?

Field work:

• how often?• when (season)?• all together?• which lakes in which years?• sampling depth?

Field work

Field work:

• how often?• when?• all together?• which lakes in which years?• sampling depth?

Field work

responsible for organization

bot./chem.

inverts/chem.

bot./chem.

inverts/chem.

bot./chem.

inverts/chem.

Ohrid and Prespa

Macedonia/Albania

July 2016

May 2016

2 lakes Montenegro

Montenegro July 2017

Sava lake and 1 lake Lura

Serbia/Albania

July 2017

Field work:

• how often?• when?• all together?• which lakes in which years?• sampling depth?

Field work

0.5 m?

0-1m, 1-2m, 2-4m, >4m?

0.5 m, 2 m, ???

0.5 m, 2 m, ???

Field work:

• how often?• when?• all together?• which lakes in which years?• sampling depth?

comparative analyses across groups!!! do not change sampling depth during project!

Western Balkan: ecological status

Sediment-phosphorusHow to take the samplesGrab sample (do we have a grab that we can use at all sites?) from about 1 m (or deeper?) depth How to store the samplesSediment kept at 4 oC (fridge) should be ok for quite a long time; but it is best to try and analyse the samples during September (if we take them in the end of July) How to measure sediment PExtractant: 0.1M NaOH (4g NaOH in 1L DI water) • 2g of wet sediments in a 50 ml centrifuge tube • add 25 ml of extractant • shake over 18 hours • centrifuge at 5000 rpm for 20 minutes • recover the supernatant, keep at 4 oC until analysis • measure soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) and total phosphorus (TP) in the

extracts Note: it is almost always necessary to dilute the supernatant! Suggest starting with 1:1 dilution …but this is just a guess

Western Balkan: ecological status

Western Balkan: ecological status

Day 2: Group work: 2 hours!

Macrophytes (report: Norway): transect-width (10 m)? depth zonation (0-1, 1-2, 2-4, >4)? 1-5 scale? Common species determination 1-2 days after field work? Snorkeling plus grab/rake sampling?Diatoms (report: Serbia): 10 stones? From about 50 cm depth? Shared samples? Who counts samples? Intercalibration of taxonomy/counting methods between countries? Common taxonomy workshops?Macroinvertebrates (report: Macedonia): from which depth? One or two seasons? Kick sampling and/or grab sampling? Who counts samples? Intercalibration of taxonomy/counting methods between countries? Common taxonomy workshops?

Chemistry (report: Albania): water: which parameters? From which depth? Who measures what? Intercalibration of methods between countries?Sediment: grab sample? Who can measure sediment P-fractions? Methods?