Marine monitoring: Its shortcomings and mismatch with the EU Water Framework Directive's objectives

The main goal of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) is to achieve good ecological status across European surface waters by 2015 and as such, it offers the opportunity and thus the challenge to improve the protection of our coastal systems. It is the main example for Europe's increasing desire to conserve aquatic ecosystems. Ironically, since c. 1975 the increasing adoption of EU directives has been accompanied by a decreasing interest of, for example, the Dutch government to assess the quality of its coastal and marine ecosystems. The surveillance and monitoring started in NL in 1971 has declined since the 1980s resulting in a 35% reduction of sampling stations. Given this and interruptions the remaining data series is considered to be insufficient for purposes other than trend analysis and compliance. The Dutch marine managers have apparently chosen a minimal (cost-effective) approach despite the WFD implicitly requiring the incorporation of the system's 'ecological complexity' in indices used to evaluate the ecological status of highly variable systems such as transitional and coastal waters. These indices should include both the community structure and system functioning and to make this really cost-effective a new monitoring strategy is required with a tailor-made programme. Since the adoption of the WFD in 2000 and the launching of the European Marine Strategy in 2002 (and the recently proposed Marine Framework Directive) we suggest reviewing national monitoring programmes in order to integrate water quality monitoring and biological monitoring and change from 'station oriented monitoring' to 'basin or system oriented monitoring' in combination with specific 'cause-effect' studies for highly dynamic coastal systems. Progress will be made if the collected information is integrated and aggregated in valuable tools such as structure- and functioning-oriented computer simulation models and Decision Support Systems. The development of ecological indices integrating community structure and system functioning, such as in Ecological Network Analysis, are proposed to meet a cost-effective approach at the national level and full assessment of the ecosystem status at the EU level. The WFD offers the opportunity to re-consider and re-invest in environmental research and monitoring. Using examples from the Netherlands and, to a lesser extent, the United Kingdom, the present paper therefore reviews marine monitoring and marine environmental research in combination and in the light of such major policy initiatives such as the WFD.     

(137)Cs baseline levels in the Mediterranean and Black Sea: a cross-basin survey of the CIESM Mediterranean Mussel Watch programme

The common mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis was selected as unique biomonitor species to implement a regional monitoring programme, the CIESM Mediterranean Mussel Watch (MMW), in the Mediterranean and Black Seas. As of today, and upon standardization of the methodological approach, the MMW Network has been able to quantify (137)Cs levels in mussels from 60 coastal stations and to produce the first distribution map of this artificial radionuclide at the scale of the entire Mediterranean and Black Seas. While measured (137)Cs levels were found to be very low (usually < 1 Bq kg(-1) wet wt) (137)Cs activity concentrations in the Black Sea and North Aegean Sea were up to two orders of magnitude higher than those in the western Mediterranean Basin. Such effects, far from representing a threat to human populations or the environment, reflect a persistent signature of the Chernobyl fallout in this area.     

Paleobiology of the Mesoproterozoic-Neoproterozoic transition: the Sukhaya Tunguska Formation, Turukhansk Uplift, Siberia

Silicified carbonates of the latest Mesoproterozoic Sukhaya Tunguska Formation, northwestern Siberia, contain abundant and diverse permineralized microfossils. Peritidal environments are dominated by microbial mats built by filamentous cyanobacteria comparable to modern species of Lyngbya and Phormidium. In subtidal to lower intertidal settings, mat-dwelling microbenthos and possible coastal microplankton are abundant. In contrast, densely woven mat populations with few associated taxa characterize more restricted parts of tidal flats; the preservation of vertically oriented sheath bundles and primary fenestrae indicates that in these mats carbonate cementation was commonly penecontemporaneous with mat growth. Eoentophysalis mats are limited to restricted environments where microlaminated carbonate precipitates formed on or just beneath the sediment surface. Most microbenthic populations are cyanobacterial, although eukaryotic microfossils may occur among the simple spheroidal cells interpreted as coastal plankton. Protists are more securely represented by large (up to 320 micrometers in diameter) but poorly preserved acritarchs in basinal facies. The Sukhaya Tunguska assemblage contains 27 species in 18 genera. By virtue of their stratigraphic longevity and their close and predictable association with specific paleoenvironmental conditions, including substrates, Proterozoic cyanobacteria support a model of bacterial evolution in which populations adapt rapidly to novel environments and, thereafter, resist competitive replacement. The resulting evolutionary pattern is one of accumulation and stasis rather than the turnover and replacement characteristic of Phanerozoic plants and animals.