PAR 2004 statistics preliminary scores

1
Application of specific exergy to macrophytes as
an integrated index of environmental quality for
coastal lagoons M. Austoni , G. Giordani, P.
Viaroli and J. M. Zaldívar Department of
Environmental Sciences, Parma University, Parma,
Italy Rural Water and Ecosystem Resources Unit,
Institute for Environment and Sustainability,
European Commission, Joint Research Centre,
Ispra, Italy
Ecological Indicators (in press)
2
Transitional systems between the Land and the Sea

• Bodies of surface water which are partly saline
  in character as a result of their proximity to
  coastal waters but which are substantially
  influenced by freshwater flows, e.g. river
  mouths, lagoons, and coastal brackish or salt
  lakes.
• Heterogeneous, variable and highly productive
  ecosystems
• Influenced by watershed (nutrients and
  pollutants discharges) and open Sea
• Integrated management concept for the
  water-sediment-soil system at river scale
• High economical areas (aquaculture, agriculture,
  tourism). Necessity of cost-benefit analysis and
  integration of socio-economic and environmental
  indicators.

Need for indicators!
3

• IDEAL CHARACTERISTICS
• Be simple an inexpensive
• Capture function, composition and structure of
  the ecosystem.
• Be sensitive to stresses on the system
• Respond to stresses in a predictable manner
• Be anticipatory
• Predict changes that can be averted by management
  actions
• Be integrative
• Have a known response to disturbances,
  anthropogenic stresses and changes over time
• Have a low variability in response

4

• Classification of INDICATORS
• Level 1 Application to specific species Level
  2 Ratio between classes of organisms Level 3
  Specific chemical compounds Level 4 Trophic
  levels Level 5 Rates Level 6 Composite
  indicators Level 7 Holistic indicators Level
  8 Thermodynamic indicators

Handbook of Ecological Indicators for Assessment
of Ecosystem Health, 2005, S. E. Jørgensen, F.-L.
Xu R. Costanza (Eds). CRC Press
5
ECOLOGICAL STATE GROUP CLASSIFICATION (Level 2
Ratio between classes of organisms)

• Ecological State Group (ESG) classification
  matrix for seaweed and seagrasses (Orfanidis et
  al., 2001, 2003).
• ESG I. Species with low growth rates and long
  life cycles
• ESG II. Opportunistic species with high growth
  rates and short life cycles

6
IFREMER Classification scheme for coastal
lagoons (Level 6 Composite indicators)
e.g. Macrophytes
Souchu et al. (2000). Ifremer-Créocean
Université Montpellier II, 412 p.
7
Application of Specific Exergy as an indicator
for coastal ecosystems(Level 8 Thermodynamic
indicators)
Exergy is defined as the amount of work a system
can perform when it is brought to thermodynamic
equilibrium with its environment or reference
state (Jørgensen, 1997).
Specific exergy
Coherent calculation of bi
C? nuclear DNA content
8
Application of Specific Exergy as an indicator
for coastal ecosystems (Level 8 Thermodynamic
indicators)

• Calculation of b for typical Mediterranean
  species 244 genera and species of macrophytes,
  of which 85 Chlorophyta, 111 Rhodophyta, 44
  Phaeophyta and 4 Angiosperms.
• Application to Macrophytes/ 81 stations in 9
  French Mediterranean lagoons
• Comparison with existing criteria Orfanidis et
  al. (2003), IFREMER (Souchu et al. 2000)

9
Results
The non-parametric median test (sign test)
distinguishes between ESG I and ESG II
10
Results
Ifremer classification scheme
The non-parametric median test (sign test)
distinguishes between Climax, drifting and
opportunistic
11
Results
12
Results
RESULTS
WFD corrective measures
13
Results
14
Results
15
Application of Specific Exergy to fish data
catches from FAO
New Developments
Atlantic, Northwest
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Conclusions

• Data on genetic content is becoming more common,
  still the number of non-informative genes is not
  an easy value to calculate.
• The final specific exergy on an ecosystem will
  be the averaged sum of all compartments.
  Therefore, validation may be carried out
  separately, e.g. macrophytes, phytoplankon, etc.
• This approach may easily be extended to other
  ecosystems.