title: An approach to the intercalibration of benthic ecological status assessment in the North Atlantic ecoregion, according to the European Water Framework Directive.
abstract: The European Water Framework Directive (WFD) establishes a framework for the protection and improvement of transitional and coastal waters; its final objective is to achieve at least 'good water status' for all waters, by 2015. The WFD requires Member States (MSs) to assess the Ecological Status (ES) of water bodies. This assessment will be based upon the status of the biological, hydromorphological and physico-chemical quality elements, by comparing data obtained from monitoring networks to reference (undisturbed) conditions, and then deriving an Ecological Quality Ratio (EQR). One of the biological quality elements to be considered is the benthic invertebrate component and some structural parameters (composition, diversity and disturbance-sensitive taxa) must be included in the ES assessment. Following these criteria, several approaches to benthic invertebrate assessment have been proposed by MSs. The WFD requires that these approaches are intercalibrated. This contribution describes the comparison of the different methodologies proposed by United Kingdom, Spain, Denmark and Norway. Results show a high consistency between the approaches, both with regard to determining the EQR and boundary settings for the ES.
authors.affiliation: AZTI-Tecnalia, Marine Research Division, Herrera Kaia Portualdea, 20110 Pasaia, Spain. aborja@pas.azti.es
authors.forename: Angel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Borja
authors.forename: Alf B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Josefson
authors.forename: Alison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Miles
authors.forename: Iñigo
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Muxika
authors.forename: Frode
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Olsgard
authors.forename: Graham
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Phillips
authors.forename: J Germán
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Rodríguez
authors.forename: Brage
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rygg
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001267:Atlantic Ocean; D044822:Biodiversity; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*; D005060:Europe; D007391:International Cooperation / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D007448:Invertebrates / Q000254:growth & development*; D008386:Marine Biology / Q000379:methods*; D012015:Reference Standards; D012623:Seawater