Chlorophyll in transitional, coastal and marine waters (CSI 023) - Assessment published Jul 2011

Indicator definition

The indicator shows 1) annual mean summer surface concentrations (microgram/l), 2) classification of concentration levels (i.e. low, moderate, high) and 3) trends in mean summer surface concentrations of chlorophyll-a (microgram/l) in the regional seas of Europe.

Summer period is:

• June to September for stations north of latitude 59 degrees in the Baltic Sea (Gulf of Bothnia and Gulf of Finland) 
• May to September for all other stations 

The used regional and subregional seas of Europe are in line with the geographical regions and sub-regions specified in the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD).  Other European Seas (Icelandic Sea, The Norwegian Sea, the Barents Sea and the White Sea) are not covered in this indicator due to current lack of data.

Units

The concentration of chlorophyll-a is expressed as microgram /l in the uppermost 10 m of the water column during summer.

Policy context and targets

Context description

There are a number of EU Directives aimed at reducing the loads and impacts of nutrients. These include: the Nitrates Directive (91/676/EEC) aimed at reducing nitrate pollution from agricultural land; the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (91/271/EEC) aimed at reducing pollution from sewage treatment works and certain industries; the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive (96/61/EEC) aimed at controlling and preventing pollution of water from industry; and the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC) which requires the achievement of good ecological status or good ecological potential of transitional and coastal waters across the EU by 2015 and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (2008/56/EC) which  requires the acheivement or maintenance of good environmental status in European sea basins by the year 2020 at the latest, through the adoption of plans of action based on 11 qualitative descriptors, one of which is Eutrophication.

Measures also arise from a number of other international initiatives and policies including: the UN Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine environment against Land-based Activities; the Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP) 1975; the Helsinki Convention 1992 (HELCOM) on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area; OSPAR Convention 1998 for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North East Atlantic; and the Black Sea Environmental Programme (BSEP).

Targets

Natural and background concentrations of chlorophyll vary between regional seas, between sub-areas within the same regional sea, and between different water bodies types within a sub-area depending on physical and biological factors, such as natural nutrient loads, water residence time and annual biological cycling.

The most pertinent target with regard to chlorophyll concentrations arises from the Water Framework Directive. Target chlorophyll concentrations/ranges that support the biological quality elements at a good status (high-good boundary and good-moderate boundary) have been defined in the Commission Decision (2008/915/EC) based on the results of the intercalibration exercise carried out by the geographical intercalibration groups in Baltic Sea, North East Atlantic and Mediterranean. These target chlorophyll concentrations/ranges are determined locally for different water types and water categories, including coastal and transitional water bodies.

Chlorophyll concentration in the water column is considered as an indicator of the direct effect of nutrient enrichment in marine waters under Marine Strategy Framework Directive’s Good Environmental Status Descriptor 5: Human-Induced Eutrophication. The assessment of eutrophication in marine waters needs to take into account the assessment for coastal and transitional waters under the Water Framework Directive and related guidance, in a way which ensures comparability, taking also into consideration the information and knowledge gathered and approaches developed in the framework of regional sea conventions. Chlorophyll targets or thresholds for achieving good environmental status in marine water have not yet been determined.

Related policy documents

• Bathing Water Directive (76/160/EEC)
  Council Directive of 8 December 1975 concerning the Quality of Bathing Water (76/160/EEC)
• COM (2002) 539 final
  Communication from the Commission to the Council and theEuropean Parliament:Towards a strategy to protect and conserve the marine environment.COM (2002) 539 final
• Commission Decision 2010/477/EU of 1 September 2010
  Commission Decision of 1 September 2010 on criteria and methodological standards on good environmental status of marine waters.
• Commission Decision of 30 October 2008
  establishing, pursuant to Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, the values of the Member State monitoring system classifications as a result of the intercalibration exercise (2008/915/EC)
• Commission Staff Working Paper concerning the relationship between the initial assessment of marine waters and the criteria for good environmetal status
  (SEC(2011) 1255 final)
• Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment and the Coastal Region of the Mediterranean
  The Convention for the Protection of the Mediterranean Sea Against Pollution (the Barcelona Convention) was adopted on 16 February 1976 by the Conference of Plenipotentiaries of the Coastal States of the Mediterranean Region for the Protection of the Mediterranean Sea, held in Barcelona.
• Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic sea area (HELCOM).
  1992 (entered into force on 17 January 2000)
• Council Directive (91/271/EEC) of 21 May 1991
  Council Directive of 21 May 1991 concerning urban waste water treatment (91/271/EEC)
• Council Directive (91/676/EEC) 12 December 1991
  Council Directive of 12 December 1991 concerning the protection of waters against pollution caused by nitrates from agricultural sources (91/676/EEC).
• Council Directive 96/61/EC (IPPC)
  Council Directive 96/61/EC of 24 September 1996 concerning Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC). Official Journal L 257.
• Ministerial Declaration of the Third International Conference on the Protection of the North Sea
  Ministerial Declaration of the Third International Conference on the Protection of the North Sea, The Hague, 8 March 1990.
• OSPAR MSFD Advice document on eutrophication
  GES 8/2012/12
• Sixth Environment Action Programme
  DECISION No 1600/2002/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 22 July 2002 laying down the Sixth Community Environment Action Programme
• Water Framework Directive (WFD) 2000/60/EC
  Water Framework Directive (WFD) 2000/60/EC: Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2000 establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy.

Methodology

Methodology for indicator calculation

Methodology for indicator calculation (including description of data used)

The data used in this indicator is part of the WISE - State of the Environment (SoE) data, available in Waterbase - TCM (Transitional, Coastal and Marine) waters. Waterbase is the generic name given to EEA´s database on status, quality and quantity of Europe´s water resources. Waterbase – TCM waters contains data collected both from EEA member countries (i.e. belonging to the EIONET) and from the Regional Seas Conventions through the WISE-SoE TCM data collection process (WISE-SoE was formerly known as Eionet-Water and Eurowaternet). The resulting WISE SoE TCM dataset is therefore made of sub-samples of national data assembled for the purpose of providing comparable indicators of state and impact of transitional, coastal and marine waters () on a Europe-wide scale.

Annual mean summer surface concentrations of Chl-a, and classification of concentration levels

The primary aggregation consists of:

1. Identifying stations and assigning them to countries and sea regions (in line with the geographical regions specified in the MSFD) 
2. Creating statistical estimates for each combination of station and year and deriving the average annual mean summer surface concentration of Chl-a
3. Classifying Chl-a concentration levels for each station (i.e. according to low, moderate, and high boundaries)

1. Identifying stations and assigning them to countries and sea regions

All geographical positions defined in the data are assigned to a sea region by coordinates. The used regional and subregional seas of Europe are in line with the geographical regions and sub-regions specified in the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) (see below). Other European Seas (Icelandic Sea, The Norwegian Sea, the Barents Sea and the White Sea) are not covered by this indicator due to current lack of data. Also, because of the limited amount of data, only the following (sub)regions are distinguished in the maps: Baltic Sea, Celtic Seas, Greater North Sea, Bay of Biscay and Iberian coast, Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea.

The stations are then further classified as coastal or off-shore (>20 km from coast) by checking them against the coastal contour. Off-shore stations – open seas -  are distinguished per sub-regional sea, whereas coastal stations are further attributed to country. These classifications are done in ArcView. Smaller regions within the regional and sub-regional seas described above are used in the aggregation process of different determinants. 

EIONET stations

WISE SoE TCM data reported directly from countries are assigned to station identifiers (i.e. EIONET stations) that are listed with coordinates. For these data, which are mostly along the coast of the reporting country, stations are kept as defined.

For the open waters (>20 km from shoreline), coordinates are rounded to 2 decimals, and this is used to create stations (i.e. for the purpose of establishing time series) with station names derived from rounded coordinates. As coordinates for the stations are used averages over visits to the station, rather than the rounded coordinates. This ensures that in cases were most observations are in a tight cluster within the rounding area, a position within the cluster is used. The open water observations are not assigned to countries, but listed as belonging to 'Open waters' in the Country column, without reference to country.

For the coastal ICES stations, there may be overlap with Eionet stations, and for the stations close to the coast, rounding coordinates to 2. decimal may be too much (about 500 m to 1 km). However, in this update, the rounding is done also for coastal stations, but the grouping of observations to rounded coordinates is done only within observations from each country separately, and the originator country is listed. Note that these stations are not necessarily close to the coast of the originator country.

• Selecting season (month) and depth 
• If needed, building a cross-table with determinants in columns, and water samples in rows, and deriving composite determinants from that. 
• Aggregating over depth for each combination of station and date. 
• Aggregating over dates within each combination of station and year. 

The basic data consists of two tables:

The two tables are combined in a query which joins data to stations, linked by WaterbaseID, and including Country Code and Sea Region (used in Selection Criteria below). This query (or a table made from it) is used in the Aggregate queries.

3. Classification of Chl-a concentration levels, for each station

For each (sub)regional sea, the observed concentrations are classified as Low, Moderate or High. Concentrations are classified as Low when they are lower than the 20-percentile value of concentrations within a (sub)region. Concentrations are classified as High when they are higher than the 80-percentile value of concentrations within a (sub)region. The classification boundaries therefore change between regional and/or sub-regional seas.

Trend analysis of Chl-a concentrations

Consistent time series are used as the basis for assessment of changes over time. The trend analyses are based on time series from 1985 onwards.  Selected stations must have at least data in the last four years of the current assessment (2007 or later), and 5 or more years in the overall assessment period (since 1985). Trend detection for each time series was done with the Mann-Kendall Statistics using a two-sided test with a significance level of 5% (Sokal & Rohlf 1995).

The Mann-Kendall method is a non-parametric test suggested by Mann (1945) and has been extensively used for environmental time series (Helsel and Hirsch, 2002; Hipel and McLeod, 2005). Mann-Kendall is a test for monotonic trend in a time series y(x), which in this analysis is chlorophyll concentration (y) as a function of year (x). The test is based on Kendall's rank correlation, which measures the strength of monotonic association between the vectors x and y. In the case of no ties in the x and y variables, Kendall's rank correlation coefficient, tau, may be expressed as tau=S/D where S = sum {i<j} (sign(x[j]-x[i])*sign(y[j]-y[i])) and D = n(n-1)/2. S is called the score and D, the denominator, is the maximum possible value of S. The p-value of tau is computed by an algorithm given by Best and Gipps (1974). The tests reported here are two-sided (testing for both increasing and decreasing trends). Data series with p-value < 0.05 are reported as significantly increasing or decreasing. The test analyzes only the direction and significance of the change, not the size of the change.

Methodology for gap filling

n/a

Methodology references

• Sokal, R.R. & Rolhf, F.J. 1995. Biometry (3rd edition). W. H. Freeman, New York
• Carletti A, Heiskanen AS. 2009. Water Framework Directive intercalibration technical report. Part 3: Coastal and Transitional waters. JRC-IES EUR 23838 EN/3
• Ferreira JG, Andersen JH, Borja A, Bricker SB, Camp J, Cardoso da Silva M, Garcés E, Heiskanen AS, Humborg C, Ignatiades L, Lancelot C, Menesguen A, Tett P, Hoepffner N, Claussen U, 2011. Overview of eutrophication indicators to assess environmental status within the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive. Estuarine Coastal and Shelf Science 93, 117-131.
• Helsel, D.R., Hirsch, R.M., 2002. Statistical methods in water resources. Techniques of Water Resources Investigations Book 4, chapter A3. U.S. Geological Survey. 522 pp.
• Hipel K.W. & McLeod A.I., 2005. Time Series Modelling of Water Resources and Environmental Systems Electronic reprint of our book originally published in 1994.
• Mann H.B., 1945. Nonparametric tests against trend Econometrica 13, 245-259

Uncertainties

Methodology uncertainty

The Mann-Kendall test for the detection of trends is a robust and accepted approach. However, due to the multiple trend analyses, approximately 5% of the tests conducted will turn out significant if in fact there is no trend. Also, the accuracy at the regional level is largely influenced by the number of stations for which data is available.

There are also a number of uncertainties related to temporal and spatial use of the data. Currently two growing seasons are distinguished, one for the northern part of the Baltic Sea (June- September) and one for the southern part of the Baltic Sea, the North Sea, NE Atlantic waters, Mediterranean and Black Sea (May-September). It is questionable whether using one growing season for all waters that range geographically from the Mediterranean and the Black Sea to the North Sea and Baltic Sea, is appropriate. Moreover, currently only surface concentrations are considered. However, in the Black Sea, not only do the chlorophyll concentrations show peaks in late winter, late spring and autumn, these peaks do not only occur at the surface but also in subsurface layer (BS SoE, 2008). 

Data sets uncertainty

Data for this assessment are still scarce considering the large spatial and temporal variations inherent in European transitional, coastal and marine waters. Long stretches of European coastal waters are not covered by the analysis due to lack of data. Trend analyses are only consistent for the eastern North Sea, the Baltic Sea area and French and Croatian coastal waters in the Mediterranean.

For the assessment of chlorophyll-a concentrations, different analytical methods are generally used. Although these different analytical methods generally give comparable results with reasonable to good correlations between methods, simple fluorometric and photometric methods are less accurate and therefore may be a source of uncertainty.

Low sampling frequencies increase the risk of not detecting phytoplankton blooms, and differences in sampling frequency between stations are an additional source of uncertainty.

Rationale uncertainty