MARS Kick-off Meeting 17–21 February 2014 Mallorca, Spain

Managing  mul*ple  stress  for  mul*ple  benefits:  

 

Towards  new  scien-fic  concepts,  methods  and  tools  in  river  basin  

management  

Anne  Lyche-­‐Solheim1,  Sebas-an  Birk2,  Daniel  Hering2  1Norwegian  Ins-tute  for  Water  Research  (NIVA),  Norway  

2University  of  Duisburg-­‐Essen  (UDE),  Germany  

The MARS project

1 UDE, Germany 13 METU, Turkey 2 AU, Denmark 14 NERC, United Kingdom 3 AZTI, Spain 15 NIVA, Norway 4 BOKU, Austria 16 NTUA, Greece 5 CHMI, Czech Rep. 17 SYKE, Finland 6 CU, United Kingdom 18 UL, Slovenia 7 DDNI, Romania 19 ULT, Portugal 8 DELTARES, Netherlands 20 APA, Portugal* 9 EMU, Estonia 21 BMLFUW, Austria* 10 IGB, Germany 22 EA, United Kingdom* 11 IRSTEA, France 23 ICPDR, international* 12 JRC, Europe 24 NARW, Romania*

*Applied partners

•  FP7  project:  Managing  Aqua-c  ecosystems  and  water  Resources  under  mul-ple  Stress  

•  Project  dura-on:  February  1st,  2014–January  31st,  2018  •  Funding:  9  Mio.  Euro  

Content

Background  •  Status-­‐quo  of  European  surface  waters  •  What  do  we  know?    The  MARS  project  •  Concepts:  Finding  a  common  language  •  Methods:  Addressing  all  scales  •  Tools:  Suppor-ng  the  management  •  Impact:  Reaching  out  to  the  public  

Cities

Agriculture

Industries

Living in “coupled human environmental systems“

Water resources

Status-quo of European surface waters

0"

5"

10"

15"

20"

25"

30"

35"

40"

45"

0" 1" 2" 3" 4" 5" 6" 7"

Percen

tage"of"w

ater"bod

ies"

Number"of"pressures"co=ac>ng"

Rivers"Lakes"TraCs"

Mul'ple  pressures  ac'ng  on  EU  surface  waters  Data  source:  WISE  WFD  database  (EEA  2015;  n  =  108,130  water  bodies  of  26  EU  Member  States)  

Total:  41%  

Status-quo of European surface waters

Two-­‐pressure  combina'ons  ac'ng  most  frequently  Data  source:  WISE  WFD  database  (EEA  2015;  n  =  26,345  water  bodies  of  26  EU  Member  States)  

7%#

63%#

12%#

18%# Lakes&Point#&#Diffuse#

Diffuse#&#Hydromorphological#

Diffuse#&#Other#(e.g.#alien#species,#overfishing,#waste#disposal)#

Other#combinaHons#

Diffuse  pollu'on  and  hydromorphological  pressures  

21%$

41%$3%$

35%$Rivers'Point$&$Diffuse$

Diffuse$&$Hydromorphological$

Diffuse$&$Other$(e.g.$alien$species,$overfishing,$waste$disposal)$

Other$combinaGons$

Diffuse  pollu'on  and  hydromorphological  pressures  

25%$

8%$

46%$

21%$ TraCs&Point$&$Diffuse$

Point$&$Other$(e.g.$alien$species,$overfishing,$waste$disposal)$

Diffuse$&$Other$(e.g.$alien$species,$overfishing,$waste$disposal)$

Other$combinaFons$

Diffuse  pollu'on  and  other  (e.g.  aliens,  overfishing)  pressures  

What do we know?

Systema'c  literature  review  including  >200  scien'fic  publica'ons  (Nõges  et  al.,  submiMed)  

•  Generally  poor  quan-ta-ve  evidence  of  mul-stress  effects  à  low  predic-ve  capacity  

•  Ambiguous  response  of  biological  indicators  under  mul-stress  condi-ons  

•  Two-­‐stressor  effects  studied  most  frequently  (42%)  Main  combina-on:  Nutrients  &  Hydrology  

•  Poor  knowledge  on  stressor  interac-ons  

Implications for water management

1  +  1  =  2    Addi*ve  effects  of  two  stressors  co-­‐ac*ng  à  Management  measures  addressing  largest  

stressor  has  greatest  benefit  

State-­‐of-­‐the-­‐art  

1  +  1  =  3    Synergis*c  effects  of  two  stressors  co-­‐ac*ng  à  Underes-ma-on  of  ecosystem  decline  

if  predicted  on  individual  stressor  effects  

Knowledge  gap  

Content

Background  •  Status-­‐quo  of  European  surface  waters  •  What  do  we  know?    The  MARS  project  •  Concepts:  Finding  a  common  language  •  Methods:  Addressing  all  scales  •  Tools:  Suppor-ng  the  management  •  Impact:  Reaching  out  to  the  public  

The MARS project

Managing aquatic ecosystems and water resources under multiplestress — An introduction to the MARS project

Daniel Hering a,⁎, Laurence Carvalho b, Christine Argillier c, Meryem Beklioglu d, Angel Borja e,Ana Cristina Cardoso f, Harm Duel g, Teresa Ferreira h, Lidija Globevnik i, Jenica Hanganu j, Seppo Hellsten k,Erik Jeppesen l, Vit Kodeš m, Anne Lyche Solheim n, Tiina Nõges o, Steve Ormerod p, Yiannis Panagopoulos q,Stefan Schmutz r, Markus Venohr s, Sebastian Birk a

a University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE), Centre of Water and Environmental Research (ZWU), Germanyb Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), United Kingdomc National Research Institute of science and Technology for Environment and Agriculture (IRSTEA), Franced Middle East Technical University (METU), Turkeye AZTI-Tecnalia (AZTI), Spainf European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), Italyg Stichting DELTARES (DELTARES), The Netherlandsh University of Lisbon (ULisboa), Portugali University of Ljubljana (UL), Sloveniaj Danube Delta National Institute for Research and Development (DDNI), Romaniak Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), Finlandl Aarhus University (AU), Denmarkm Czech Hydrometeorological Institute (CHMI), Czech Republicn Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA), Norwayo Estonian University of Life Sciences (EMU), Estoniap Cardiff University (CU), United Kingdomq National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Greecer University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Austrias Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (FVB-IGB), Germany

H I G H L I G H T S

• We describe the aims and approaches of the EU-funded project MARS and its conceptual framework.• MARS is operating at the water body, the catchment, and the European scales.• It includes experiments, catchment modelling and large-scale data analysis.• It addresses the link between multiple stressors, ecological responses and functions.• The project will support the implementation of European water policies.

a b s t r a c ta r t i c l e i n f o

Article history:Received 14 May 2014Received in revised form 20 June 2014Accepted 24 June 2014Available online xxxx

Keywords:River Basin ManagementEuropeEcological statusEcosystem services

Water resources globally are affected by a complex mixture of stressors resulting from a range of drivers, includ-ing urban and agricultural land use, hydropower generation and climate change. Understanding how stressorsinterfere and impact upon ecological status and ecosystem services is essential for developing effective RiverBasin Management Plans and shaping future environmental policy. This paper details the nature of these prob-lems for Europe's water resources and the need to find solutions at a range of spatial scales. In terms of the latter,we describe the aims and approaches of the EU-funded project MARS (Managing Aquatic ecosystems and waterResources under multiple Stress) and the conceptual and analytical framework that it is adopting to provide thisknowledge, understanding and tools needed to address multiple stressors. MARS is operating at three scales: Atthe water body scale, the mechanistic understanding of stressor interactions and their impact upon water re-sources, ecological status and ecosystem services will be examined through multi-factorial experiments andthe analysis of long time-series. At the river basin scale, modelling and empirical approaches will be adopted

Science of the Total Environment xxx (2014) xxx–xxx

⁎ Corresponding author at: Department of Aquatic Ecology, University of Duisburg-Essen, 45117 Essen, Germany.E-mail address: daniel.hering@uni-due.de (D. Hering).

STOTEN-16522; No of Pages 12

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.06.1060048-9697/© 2014 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Science of the Total Environment

j ourna l homepage: www.e lsev ie r .com/ locate /sc i totenv

Please cite this article as: Hering D, et al, Managing aquatic ecosystems andwater resources undermultiple stress— An introduction to theMARSproject, Sci Total Environ (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.06.106

New  concepts,  methods  and  tools  in  river  basin  management  

Conceptual framework

The MARS model

Concepts: Finding a common language

What  is  a  “Stressor”?  A  Stressor  is  any  environmental  change  in  a  factor  that  causes  some  response  by  the  system  of  interest.  The  response  caused  by  the  Stressor  can  be  beneficial  or  deleterious.  

How  is  the  term  related  to  the  DPSIR  scheme?  Not  used  in  the  DPSIR  scheme.  A  Stressor  can  belong  to  either  the  Pressure  or  State  category  à  (puta-ve)  cause  in  a  cause-­‐and-­‐effect  chain  

Concepts: Finding a common language

MARS  terminology  document:  Harmonising  approaches  in  applied  mul-stressor  research  

Multiple pressures

Task  on  European  Mul'-­‐pressure  Mapping    

•  To  gain  knowledge  on  spa-ally  explicit  mul--­‐pressure  combina-ons  in  Europe  

•  Mapping  of  (weighted)  cumula-ve  pressure  index  plus  cluster  analysis  of  areas  of  similar  mul--­‐pressure  profiles  

!Vörösmarty  et  al.  (2010)  

Indicator overview

Indicator name Ecological status of surface water body Total phosphorus concentration in the water column Total nitrogen concentration in the water column Growing season mean of water column chlorophyll-a concentration Chlorophyll-a to total phosphorus ratio (Chl:TP) Biovolume of toxic/nuisance phytoplankton species Abundance of submerged, emergent and floating-leafed macrophytic vegetation Average Score per Taxon (ASPT) Abundance ratios of invertebrate functional feeding groups Relative abundance of invasive alien invertebrate species Total fish abundance (incl. abundance of commercially relevant fish) Mean duration of high flow pulses within each year (extreme rain events) Mean duration of low pulses within each year (drought events) Annual water-level fluctuations Amount of naturally-forested land in the riparian corridor of water body

The fifteen MARS benchmark indicators to assess response to the multiple stressors on all scales

Methods: Addressing all scales

Water body scale: 7 flume and mesocosm

factorial experiments

Combined effects of DOC, flow, water abstraction, temperature,

precipitation, nutrients, fine sediments,

habitat morphology

River basin scale: 16 case study basins

Statistical analysis of combined effects of

water abstraction, flow regulation, morphological alteration, water quality, warming,

land use

Continental scale: Europe-wide data analysis

of large lakes and rivers and of fish across rivers,

lakes and and estuaries

Statistical analysis of relationships between drivers, pressures, biological impacts,

ecosystem processes and ecosystem services

Tools: Supporting the management

2

Target group The tool is aimed at practitioners who draft river basin plans, programmes of measures or who seek

guidance for observed problems (impacts) within a single water body.

Specific aims In addition to the overall goal we encountered smaller aims that determine the content, structure,

appearance and success of the website. In discussions this list will be refined and completed. As a

start we recognised these aims:

x Focus on a single overall goal for the website (KIS: Keep It Simple).

x Aim for completeness within that single goal (for example all stressor types from MARS).

x Make the relations between stressor, impact and measures interactive.

x Relations between stressors, impacts and measures are conceptual or indicative; the

additional  “MARS  diagnostic  tool”  will  focus  on  deeper  location-specific analysis based on

user inputted data.

x Use a limited set (5) of best or worst practise case studies to illustrate stressors, impacts or

measures on site level and RBMP level (case studies MARS, selected cases studies REFORM

wiki).

x For impact: use a core set of indicators on the status of water bodies.

x Show dose-response-relationships (linking multiple stressors and indicators).

x Use a unified and well defined vocabulary (for example stressors vs. pressures).

Contents As stated in the goal we aim to present knowledge on stressor, impact and measures, see figure 1.

The knowledge is presented on a conceptual level, meaning that we aim to show the state-of-the-art

knowledge on relations between individual or combined stressors, their impacts and mitigation

measures for different generalised types of water bodies.

Exa

mp

le c

ase

stu

die

s

Impact

Status of WBEcosystem

Services

StressorsIndividual

stressors

Combined

stressors

Combined

stressors

MeasuresSites Catchments

 Gu

idadnce  for  river  basin  m

anagers  

 

Impact: Reaching out to the public

•  Social media tool •  2013 among the top biodiversity

blogs ranked in Science

•  About 7,000 readers / month, >100,000 hits in 2014

•  Professional writer, weekly updates •  http://freshwaterblog.net

Conclusions

•  Mul-stressor  condi-ons  are  no  excep-on,  but  the  norm.  

•  Scien-fic  knowledge  is  increasing,  but  there’s  a  poor  recep-on  in  prac-ce.  

•  Challenge:  Bridging  the  gap  towards  successful  River  Basin  Management.