Oceanological and Hydrobiological Studies International Journal of Oceanography and Hydrobiology Vol. XXXVIII, No.3 Institute of Oceanography (87-99) University of Gdańsk ISSN 1730-413X 2009 eISSN 1897-3191 Received: February 14, 2009 DOI 10.2478/v10009-009-0037-1 Original research paper Accepted: July 17, 2009 Development of tools for ecological quality assessment in Polish marine areas according to the Water Framework Directive. Part I – Nutrients Elżbieta Łysiak-Pastuszak1, Włodzimierz Krzymiński, Łukasz Lewandowski Institute of Meteorology and Water Management – Maritime Branch ul. Waszyngtona 42, 81-342 Gdynia, Poland Key words: nutrients, eutrophication, response curves, ecological quality assessment, Baltic Sea Abstract Assessment of the ecological status of an aquatic environment according to the European Union Water Framework Directive (WFD) requires the determination of a link between the observed status of the marine ecosystem and catchment loading as well as the establishment of criteria for ecological status definitions. This article presents the results of a study identifying links between environmental pressures in the Polish sector of the Baltic Sea and state parameters applied in the assessment of eutrophication. Strong, statistically significant correlations were found between riverine loads of nutrients and their marine concentrations even in relatively short time data series. 1 Corresponding author:
[email protected] Copyright© by Institute of Oceanography, University of Gdańsk, Poland www.oandhs.org 88 E. Łysiak-Pastuszak, W. Krzymiński, Ł. Lewandowski INTRODUCTION The Water Framework Directive (WFD) aims to achieve a good ecological status in all European rivers, lakes and coastal marine waters and demands that the ecological status is quantified based on biological indicators, i.e.