Integrated water management in shared water resources: The EU Water Framework Directive implementation in Greece

The political dimension of water becomes highly important not only because of its scarcity, but also as a result of its sharing across national boundaries. Approximately 40% of the global population lives in transboundary water basins, 55% of which are located in Europe, emphasizing the need for cooperation and harmonization of policies. In order to better handle major water problems Europe have adopted the new EU Water Framework Directive 2000/60 the implementation of which is further discussed. Especially in Greece, management of transboundary rivers is of major importance, since roughly 25% of the country’s renewable resources are “imported”. However, lack of integrated approaches and legal agreements as well as administrative shortcomings, make transboundary cooperation and management a hard task. This study refers to 4 shared basins in Northern Greece and demonstrates the problems that occur for their sustainable management.     

Temporal and spatial variations in nutrient stoichiometry and regulation of phytoplankton biomass in Hong Kong waters: influence of the Pearl River outflow and sewage inputs

In 2001, the Hong Kong government implemented the Harbor Area Treatment Scheme (HATS) under which 70% of the sewage that had been formerly discharged into Victoria Harbor is now collected and sent to Stonecutters Island Sewage Works where it receives chemically enhanced primary treatment (CEPT), and is then discharged into waters west of the Harbor. The relocation of the sewage discharge will possibly change the nutrient dynamics and phytoplankton biomass in this area. Therefore, there is a need to examine the factors that regulate phytoplankton growth in Hong Kong waters in order to understand future impacts. Based on a historic nutrient data set (1986-2001), a comparison of ambient nutrient ratios with the Redfield ratio (N:P:Si=16:1:16) showed clear spatial variations in the factors that regulate phytoplankton biomass along a west (estuary) to east (coastal/oceanic) transect through Hong Kong waters. Algal biomass was constrained by a combination of low light conditions, a rapid change in salinity, and strong turbulent mixing in western waters throughout the year. Potential stoichiometric Si limitation (up to 94% of the cases in winter) occurred in Victoria Harbor due to the contribution of sewage effluent with high N and P enrichment all year, except for summer when the frequency of stoichiometric Si limitation (48%) was the same as P, owing to the influence of the high Si in the Pearl River discharge. In the eastern waters, potential N limitation and N and P co-limitation occurred in autumn and winter respectively, because of the dominance of coastal/oceanic water with low nutrients and low N:P ratios. In contrast, potential Si limitation occurred in spring and a switch to potential N, P and Si limitation occurred in eastern waters in summer. In southern waters, there was a shift from P limitation (80%) in summer due to the influence of the N-rich Pearl River discharge, to N limitation (68%) in autumn, and to N and P co-limitation in winter due to the dominance of N-poor oceanic water from the oligotrophic South China Sea. Our results show clear temporal and spatial variations in the nutrient stoichiometry which indicates potential regulation of phytoplankton biomass in HK waters due to the combination of the seasonal exchange of the Pearl River discharge and oceanic water, sewage effluent inputs, and strong hydrodynamic mixing from SW monsoon winds in summer and the NE monsoon winds in winter.     

Is it possible to assess the ecological status of highly stressed natural estuarine environments using macroinvertebrates indices?

Several biotic indices have been proposed for the assessment of the ecological status of benthic macroinvertebrates in marine waters, although none have been generally accepted. When it comes to assessing highly stressed natural environments, such as estuaries, the controversy and uncertainty is much higher than for any given normal index. In this article, we test the behavior and suitability of different biotic indices proposed under the perspective of the Water Framework Directive (S, H, AMBI, M-AMBI, BQI, W-statistic, Taxonomic distinctness) for the assessment of estuaries in northern Spain. The low species richness and dominance of a few tolerant species in the characteristic community of these estuaries presented a challenge to the application of the biotic indices tested. Combined approaches that integrate different aspects of water quality and ecosystem functionality could increase the reliability of the ecological assessment of these transitional waters.     

The performance of benthic indicators of ecological change in Adriatic coastal lagoons: throwing the baby with the water?

The ecological quality of 127 stations from six Adriatic coastal lagoons was assessed using a suite of biotic indices: H', d, 1-lambda', Delta(*), Delta(+), W, AMBI, BOPA and FINE. The analysis indicated the difficulties in deriving and using the existing indices from benthic communities in highly variable environmental conditions in coastal lagoons. Different metrics rendered different results: the use of H' resulted in the classification of all stations as "Moderate/Poor/Bad", whereas BOPA classified the majority of the stations as "Good/High". Using Delta(+), most of the stations resulted as "Not anthropogenically impacted", while the W-statistics gave 82 stations as "Undisturbed" and 45 as "Moderately/Grossly disturbed". AMBI classified 55 stations as "High/Good" and 72 as "Moderate/Poor/Bad", whereas those were 32 and 95 with FINE, respectively. The latter, which was developed just for Italian coastal lagoons, was the most conservative among the indices studied. Yet, it showed the highest correlation with the species/abundance matrix. Using indices developed for coastal waters in lagoons can give the distorted indication that the water body is degraded, when it might be just a natural, low diversity, high abundance community, i.e. a lagoonal community. Moreover, the outcome of the use of a certain index has a financial dimension such that lagoons misclassified as being "poor status" will then require expensive remediation measures. For the lagoons studied, there is probably an adequate quality and quantity of benthic data available for making management decisions, but this study highlights the limits of the existing indices for lagoonal ecosystems. The challenge for the next future is to couple long term conservation of the natural environment with the highly productive activities carried out in lagoonal ecosystems.     

含盐量对石灰固化滨海盐渍土稠度和击实性能的影响

随着含盐量的增加,滨海盐渍土中的盐分结晶形成了更多的盐颗粒,使石灰固化土的稠度指标发生变化,总体上分阶段逐渐下降。含盐量的增加使得石灰固化土的不均匀系数增大,且随着养护龄期的增加而增大。增加土的含盐量,则石灰固化土悬液的电导率随之增加,但电导率几乎不随养护龄期而变化,这表明氯盐没有参与石灰的固化反应,只是吸附在土颗粒的表面或存在土孔隙中,石灰固化后的盐渍土仍然具有一定的吸湿软化性。重型击实试验结果证实,增加含盐量使石灰土混合料的最大干密度略有降低,最优含水率则几乎不变,因此,施工中可不考虑含盐量对石灰固化滨海盐渍土现场碾压效果的影响。     

厦门沿岸海域渔业资源变化和最适捕捞力量的估算

本文以厦门沿岸海域历次渔业资源和生物调查及１９８４－１９９５年渔业统计资料为背景,分析了该海域渔业资源的变动,重点对文昌鱼、真鲷、鳓鱼、大黄鱼、蓝点斑马鲛、长毛对、中国鲎等重要经济种类资源变动的原因进行探讨,针对目前资源的变动趋向,指出了近期重点的保护对象和有开发潜力的种类,并以三种标准捕捞力量,应用了Ｓｃｈａｅｆｅｒ和Ｆｏｘ两种剩余产量模式估算最大持续产量（ＭＳＹ）和最知捕捞力量。估算结果ＭＳＹ     

南麂列岛附近海域浮游动物的分布及其与浮游藻类和营养盐的关系

本文描述了南麂列岛附近海域浮游动物的分布及其与浮游藻类和营养盐之间的关系。结果显示：浮游动物丰度与浮游藻类细胞总密度和硅藻细胞密度有正相关性,与硅酸盐和硝酸盐的浓度有负相关性。     

Studies on primary productivity model in shallow mixed waters

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Distribution of fouling bryozoans in thenorthern South China Sea

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