THE DEVELOPMENT AND TESTING OF AN INTEGRATED ASSESSMENT SYSTEM FOR THE ECOLOGICAL QUALITY OF STREAMS AND RIVERS THROUGHOUT EUROPE USING BENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES. MANUAL FOR THE APPLICATION OF THE AQEM SYSTEM A COMPREHENSIVE METHOD TO ASSESS EUROPEAN STREAMS USING BENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES, DEVELOPED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THE WATER FRAMEWORK DIRECTIVE VERSION 1.0, FEBRUARY 2002 DEVELOPED AND WRITTEN BY THE AQEM CONSORTIUM AQEM was a project under the 5th Framework Programme Energy, Environment and Sustain- able Development; Key Action 1: Sustainable Management and Quality of Water Contract No: EVK1-CT1999-00027 www.aqem.de MANUAL FOR THE APPLICATION OF THE AQEM SYSTEM I Contributors The AQEM1 system was developed by the following research groups: • No. 1 (project co-ordinator): University of Essen, Institute of Ecology, Department of Hydrobiology (Germany) • No. 2: BOKU – University of Agricultural Sciences, Institute of Water Provision, Water Ecology and Waste Management, Department of Hydrobiology, Vienna (Austria) • No. 3: Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet), De- partment of Environmental Assessment, Uppsala (Sweden) • No. 4: Masaryk University, Faculty of Science, Department of Zoology & Ecology, Divi- sion of Hydrobiology, Brno (Czech Republic) • No. 5: National Centre for Marine Research, Institute of Inland Waters, Athens (Greece) • No. 6: National Research Council, Water Research Institute (Istituto di Ricerca sulle Ac- que, IRSA – CNR), Department of Hydrobiology applied to Water Pollution, Brugherio MI (Italy) • No. 7: University of Évora, Centre of Applied Ecology, Water Laboratory, Évora (Portu- gal) • No. 8: ALTERRA Green World Research, Team of Freshwater Ecology, Wageningen (The Netherlands) • No. 9: Working Group of the Federal States on Water Problems (Länderarbeitsgemein- schaft Wasser, LAWA AGO) (Germany) • No. 10: Federal Environment Agency Limited (Austria) • No. 11: Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (Sweden) • No. 12: T.G. Masaryk Water Research Institute Prague, Brno Branch Department (Czech Republic) • No. 13: ETANAM Development Agency for Amvrakikos Gulf S.A. (Greece) • No. 14: Autonomous Province of Bolzano/Bozen, Local Department of Environment and Nature, Urban Planning, Water and Energy (Ressort für Natur und Umwelt, Raumord- nung, Wasser und Energie) Environmental Protection Agency - Biological Laboratory (It- aly) • No. 15: A.R.P.A. Piemonte (Novara) (Agenzia Regionale per la Protezione Ambientale del Piemonte - Regional Environment Protection Agency, Novara, Piedmont) (Italy) • No. 16: INAG Water Institute (Instituto da Água), Lisboa (Portugal) The text of this manual was written by DANIEL HERING (partner 1), OTTO MOOG (partner 2), MARIO SOMMERHÄUSER (partner 1), HANNEKE VLEK (partner 8), SEBASTIAN BIRK (partner 1), ANDREA BUFFAGNI (partner 6), CHRISTIAN FELD (partner 1) and THOMAS OFENBÖCK (partner 2). To be cited as: AQEM CONSORTIUM (2002). Manual for the application of the AQEM system. A comprehensive method to assess European streams using benthic macroinvertebrates, developed for the purpose of the Water Framework Directive. Version 1.0, February 2002. Help desk: Please direct all questions and suggestions for improvements to aqem@uni- essen.de. 1 Full title of the project: The Development and Testing of an Integrated Assessment System for the Ecological Quality of Streams and Rivers throughout Europe using Benthic Macroinvertebrates MANUAL FOR THE APPLICATION OF THE AQEM SYSTEM II Table of contents 0 SHORT VERSION ........................................................................................................... 1 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 8 1.1 AIMS OF STREAM ASSESSMENT WITH BENTHIC INVERTEBRATES.......................................................... 8 1.2 HOW THE AQEM SYSTEM WAS DEVELOPED .................................................................................... 9 1.3 COMPONENTS NECESSARY FOR APPLYING THE AQEM SYSTEM........................................................10 1.4 “HELP DESK” AND REQUEST FOR FAILURE NOTICE............................................................................11 2 STREAM TYPOLOGIES ............................................................................................... 13 2.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................13 2.2 OUTLINES OF A EUROPEAN STREAM TYPOLOGY...............................................................................14 2.3 CONSTRUCTING STREAM TYPOLOGIES FOR THE PURPOSES OF THE EU WATER FRAMEWORK DIRECTIVE ..................................................................................................................................15 2.4 DESCRIPTION OF THE AQEM STREAM TYPES .................................................................................17 2.5 SELECTING THE CORRECT STREAM TYPE ........................................................................................20 3 REFERENCE CONDITIONS AND CLASSES OF DETERIORATION ......................... 22 3.1 DEFINITIONS OF THE WATER FRAMEWORK DIRECTIVE .....................................................................22 3.2 CRITERIA FOR REFERENCE CONDITIONS APPLIED IN AQEM..............................................................25 3.3 THE “STRESSOR SPECIFIC APPROACH” APPLIED IN AQEM................................................................28 4 APPLICATION AND RESTRICTIONS.......................................................................... 30 4.1 APPLICABILITY OF THE AQEM SYSTEM IN GENERAL.........................................................................30 4.2 SELECTION OF THE CORRECT MODULE ...........................................................................................32 5 SELECTION OF SAMPLING SITES............................................................................. 33 6 SITE PROTOCOL.......................................................................................................... 36 6.1 AIMS AND CONTENT OF THE SITE PROTOCOL ...................................................................................36 7 SAMPLING .................................................................................................................... 39 7.1 SAMPLING SEASON ......................................................................................................................39 7.2 SAMPLING GEAR ..........................................................................................................................40 7.3 FIELD SAMPLING PROCEDURES......................................................................................................41 7.4 TRANSPORT ................................................................................................................................45 7.5 SAFETY ......................................................................................................................................46 7.6 QUALITY CONTROL IN THE FIELD ....................................................................................................47 8 SAMPLE PROCESSING............................................................................................... 48 8.1 SIEVING, SORTING, CONSERVATION ...............................................................................................48 8.2 SUBSAMPLING .............................................................................................................................50 8.3 LABELLING AND SORTING .............................................................................................................52 8.4 QUALITY ASSURANCE AND QUALITY CONTROL IN THE LAB .................................................................52 9 IDENTIFICATION .......................................................................................................... 54 10 TAXONOMIC ADJUSTMENT ....................................................................................... 55 11 ASSESSING THE ECOLOGICAL STATUS OF A STREAM ....................................... 57 11.1 WHAT IS A MULTIMETRIC INDEX?....................................................................................................57 11.2 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE AQEM ASSESSMENT METHOD.........................................................58 11.3 DETAILS ON INDIVIDUAL STEPS OF THE CALCULATION .......................................................................60 12 USE OF THE AQEM SOFTWARE................................................................................ 62 12.1 INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS ........................................................................................................62 12.2 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS ..............................................................................................................62 13 HOW TO DEAL WITH A DEGRADED STREAM? ....................................................... 81 13.1 HOW TO INTERPRET THE OUTPUT OF THE AQEM SOFTWARE?..........................................................81 13.2 EXAMPLES FOR THE INTERPRETATION OF AQEM RESULTS ..............................................................82 14 REFERENCES CITED................................................................................................... 88 MANUAL FOR THE APPLICATION OF THE AQEM SYSTEM III ANNEXES ANNEX 1: DESCRIPTION OF STREAM TYPES ..............................................................................