title: Response of fish communities to multiple pressures: Development of a total anthropogenic pressure intensity index.
abstract: Lakes in Europe are subject to multiple anthropogenic pressures, such as eutrophication, habitat degradation and introduction of alien species, which are frequently inter-related. Therefore, effective assessment methods addressing multiple pressures are needed. In addition, these systems have to be harmonised (i.e. intercalibrated) to achieve common management objectives across Europe. Assessments of fish communities inform environmental policies on ecological conditions integrating the impacts of multiple pressures. However, the challenge is to ensure consistency in ecological assessments through time, across ecosystem types and across jurisdictional boundaries. To overcome the serious comparability issues between national assessment systems in Europe, a total anthropogenic pressure intensity (TAPI) index was developed as a weighted combination of the most common pressures in European lakes that is validated against 10 national fish-based water quality assessment systems using data from 556 lakes. Multi-pressure indices showed significantly higher correlations with fish indices than single-pressure indices. The best-performing index combines eutrophication, hydromorphological alterations and human use intensity of lakes. For specific lake types also biological pressures may constitute an important additional pressure. The best-performing index showed a strong correlation with eight national fish-based assessment systems. This index can be used in lake management for assessing total anthropogenic pressure on lake ecosystems and creates a benchmark for comparison of fish assessments independent of fish community composition, size structure and fishing-gear. We argue that fish-based multiple-pressure assessment tools should be seen as complementary to single-pressure tools offering the major advantage of integrating direct and indirect effects of multiple pressures over large scales of space and time.
authors.affiliation: European Commission Joint Research Centre, Directorate for Sustainable Resources, Water and Marine Resources Unit, I-21027 Ispra, VA, Italy. Electronic address: sandra.poikane@jrc.ec.europa.eu.
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Poikane
authors.affiliation: Institute of Inland Fisheries, Im Königswald 2, 14469 Potsdam-Sacrow, Germany.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ritterbusch
authors.affiliation: Irstea, UR RECOVER, 3275 Route de Cézanne CS 40061, 13182 Aix en Provence Cedex 5, France.
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Argillier
authors.affiliation: Inland Fisheries Institute, Oczapowskiego 10-719, Olsztyn, Poland.
authors.forename: Witold
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Białokoz
authors.affiliation: Institute of Hydrobiology, Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Na Sádkách 7, 370 05 České Budějovice, Czech Republic; Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branišovská 31, 370 05 České Budějovice, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Petr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Blabolil
authors.affiliation: Research Institute for Nature and Forest, Dwersbos 28, B-1630 Linkebeek, Belgium.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Breine
authors.affiliation: Nico Jaarsma E&F, Klif 25, Den Hoorn, Texel, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Nicolaas G
authors.initials: NG
authors.lastname: Jaarsma
authors.affiliation: Centre for Limnology, Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Kreutzwaldi 5, 51014 Tartu, Estonia.
authors.forename: Teet
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Krause
authors.affiliation: Institute of Hydrobiology, Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Na Sádkách 7, 370 05 České Budějovice, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kubečka
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Vejlsøvej 25, 8600 Silkeborg, Denmark.
authors.forename: Torben L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Lauridsen
authors.affiliation: Centre for Limnology, Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Kreutzwaldi 5, 51014 Tartu, Estonia.
authors.forename: Peeter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Nõges
authors.affiliation: Environment Agency, Kidderminster DY11 7RA, UK.
authors.forename: Graeme
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Peirson
authors.affiliation: Nature Research Centre, Akademijos 2, LT-08412 Vilnius-21, Lithuania.
authors.forename: Tomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Virbickas
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017753:Ecosystem; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D005060:Europe; D005068:Eutrophication; D005399:Fishes; D006801:Humans; D060106:Lakes
keywords: Aquatic ecosystems; Bioassessment; Fish assemblages; Fish-based assessment system; Lakes; Multiple pressures; Pressure-response relationships; Water Framework Directive