Chlorophyll Reference Conditions for European Lake Types Used for Intercalibration of Ecological Status
2008
CARVALHO Laurence | SOLIMINI Angelo | PHILLIPS G | VAN DE BERG M | PIETILAINEN O-P | LYCHE SOLHEIM A | POIKANE Sandra | MISCHKE U
Recent European water legislation, the Water Framework Directive (WFD), requires European Member States to assess the �ecological status� of surface waters. As part of this, many European countries have developed a quality classification scheme for chlorophyll concentrations as a measure of phytoplankton abundance. The assessment of ecological quality and its component parts, such as chlorophyll, must be based on the degree of divergence of a water body from an appropriate baseline, or �reference condition�. It is, therefore, necessary to determine chlorophyll reference conditions for all European lake types. For this purpose, a large dataset of European lakes considered to be in reference condition has been assembled; 540 lakes in total. Data have been collated on chlorophyll concentration, altitude, mean depth, alkalinity, humic content, surface area, and geographical region. Lake-type specific reference chlorophyll concentrations have been derived from this dataset from descriptive statistics (median and percentiles) of chlorophyll concentrations. Chlorophyll concentrations were found to vary with lake type and by geographical region. Reference chlorophyll concentrations were highest in low-altitude, very shallow, high alkalinity and humic lake types. The processes responsible for these observed patterns are discussed.
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