Indicators ecological status monitoring

When studying the ecological status of watersheds and landscapes, monitoring techniques and indicators are widely used tools. The diagnostic indicators comprise indicator species and community metric approaches. To improve the interpretation of monitoring programs and ecosystem health indicators to assess risks of... 

Traditionally, lake monitoring has focused on physico-chemical parameters (nutrients, oxygen profiles, etc.) and on phytoplankton biomass as indicated by chlorophyll a, on which several classification schemes exist (e.g. OECD, 1982 Cailson, 1977). Only recently, following the new requirement introduced by the WFD to assess lake ecological status (see Cardoso et al., 2006 for a review) have most European countries included several other biological quality elements in their routine monitoring programmes, such as phytoplankton, macrophytes and phytobenthos, benthic invertebrates and fish. 

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