The Development of a System to Assess the Ecological Quality of Streams Based on Macroinvertebrates – Design of the Sampling Programme within the AQEM Project

✍ Scribed by Daniel Hering; Andrea Buffagni; Otto Moog; Leonard Sandin; Mario Sommerhäuser; Ilse Stubauer; Christian Feld; Richard Johnson; Paulo Pinto; Nikos Skoulikidis; Piet Verdonschot; Svetlana Zahrádková

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2003
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 145 KB
• Volume: 88
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1434-2944
• DOI: 10.1002/iroh.200390030

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) requires river assessment systems based on benthic invertebrates. The AQEM project is developing, at a European scale, such a methodology, based on a comparison of communities of reference streams and degraded streams. The project is focussing on three main impact types: morphological degradation, organic pollution and acidification.

This paper presents the outline of the AQEM project with special emphasis on:

– an overview of assessment systems with benthic invertebrates presently applied in Europe

– an overview of stream typology approaches in Europe

– the selection process of the stream types investigated in AQEM

– the criteria used to select reference sites

– the design of the sampling programme

– the microhabitat‐based sampling method applied in AQEM

– the links and possibilities of integration between AQEM and existing assessment systems.