Borja Angel, Bald Juan, Franco Javier, Larreta Joana, Muxika Iñigo, Revilla Marta, Rodríguez J Germán, Solaun Oihana, Uriarte Ainhize, Valencia Victoriano
AZTI-Tecnalia, Marine Research Division, Herrera Kaia, Portualdea s/n, 20110 Pasaia, Spain.
Mar Pollut Bull. 2009;59(1-3):54-64. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2008.11.010. Epub 2008 Dec 12.
The European Water Framework and Marine Strategy Directives relate to the assessment of ecological quality, within estuarine and coastal systems. This legislation requires quality to be defined in an integrative way, using several biological elements (phytoplankton, benthos, algae, phanerogams, and fishes), together with physico-chemical elements (including pollutants). This contribution describes a methodology that integrates all of this information into a unique quality assessment for 51 stations from 18 water bodies, within the Basque Country. These water bodies are distributed into four typologies, including soft-bottom coastal areas and three types of estuaries. For each station, decision trees were used to integrate (i) water, sediment and biomonitor chemical data to achieve an integrated physico-chemical assessment and (ii) multiple biological ecosystem elements into an integrated biological assessment. Depending on the availability of ecological quality ratios or global quality values, different integration schemes were used to combine station assessments into water body assessments on a single scale. Several examples from each element have been selected, to illustrate their responses to different pressures; likewise, to establish how the assessed integrated quality has changed, over time. The results made biological and ecological sense and physico-chemical improvements were often correlated with improvements in the quality of benthos and fishes. These tools permit policy makers and managers to take decisions, based upon scientific knowledge, in water management, regarding the mitigation of human pressures and associated recovery processes.
欧洲水框架指令和海洋战略指令与河口和沿海系统的生态质量评估相关。该立法要求以综合方式定义质量，使用多种生物要素（浮游植物、底栖生物、藻类、显花植物和鱼类）以及物理化学要素（包括污染物）。本论文描述了一种方法，该方法将所有这些信息整合为对巴斯克地区18个水体中51个站点的独特质量评估。这些水体分为四种类型，包括软底沿海区域和三种类型的河口。对于每个站点，使用决策树来整合：（i）水、沉积物和生物监测化学数据，以实现综合物理化学评估；（ii）多种生物生态系统要素，以实现综合生物评估。根据生态质量比率或全球质量值的可用性，使用不同的整合方案将站点评估组合成单一尺度上的水体评估。从每个要素中选取了几个例子，以说明它们对不同压力的响应；同样，以确定评估的综合质量随时间如何变化。结果具有生物学和生态学意义，物理化学方面的改善通常与底栖生物和鱼类质量的改善相关。这些工具使政策制定者和管理者能够基于科学知识，在水资源管理中就减轻人类压力和相关恢复过程做出决策。
