Mednarodni projekti
European mountain lake ecosystems: regionalisation, diagnostics & socio-economic evaluation
Organizacije (1)
Povzetek
Problems to be solved· to assess the status of remote mountain lake ecosystems throughout Europe following the requirements of the EU Water Framework Directive; · to provide an evaluation of our findings in ecological, environmental and socio-economic terms;· to provide decision makers with an overall understanding of remote mountain lakes so that appropriate policy and management measures can be taken at both European and national scales to ensure the sustainability of these ecosystems into the future. Scientific objectives and approach Most key processes needed for modelling and up-scaling are adequately understood, but we need to improve the understanding of the behaviour of trace organic and trace metal pollutants in mountain lake systems:· to understand the transport and partitioning of these pollutants in the lakes, including the sedimentary flux, speciation of metals and organics in the water column, and fluxes of dissolved substances across the water-sediment interface;· to understand how metals and organic pollutants are distributed and accumulate in the food chain, and to assess the physiological responses of fish to pollutants. To assess the status of mountain lakes throughout Europe effective up-scaling procedures need to be developed that involve rationalisation methods and the use of both empirical and process-based models to:· establish an effective network of lakes in each European mountain Lake District to fulfil three key functions:(i) individual sites for experiment and long-term reference;(ii) large numbers of sites for classification and model calibration; and(iii) small numbers of different sites for model validation and detailed survey;· regionalist knowledge on mountain lakes, involving%l(i) extrapolation of climate parameters and pollutant deposition to all sites;(ii) modelling lake/lake responses to pollutant input and climate/weather forcing, and(iii) surveying and modelling biological relationships with environmental gradients;· create a Geographic Information System (GIS) for each Lake District. Using the GIS together with all other available data on remote mountain lakes an evaluation of the past, present and likely future status of these systems will be carried out to: · classify the ecological and chemical status of all lakes using multivariate statistical techniques for numerical ecology;· establish reference conditions for each site using historical sources, palate limn logical, historical and analogue matching techniques;· establish a series of chemical and biological indicators that can be used to monitor the status of mountain lakes and provide guidance criteria for lake management;· assess the extent to which remote mountain lakes are exposed to pollutant deposition that exceeds their critical loads;· assess the extent to which climate variability, separately from and in combination with pollutant stresses, is influencing and will in future influence the status of these lakes. On the basis of ecological and environmental understanding socio-economic and policy analysis of measures to mitigate the effects of air pollution on mountain lakes will be undertaken to:· assess the effectiveness of policies that use ecological standards for managing water quality, and assess the costs of deviating from ecological standards when policy measures such as gap allowance are used to avoid meeting set standards;· assess the preferences, values and policy attitudes towards mountain lakes and mountain environments by people taking into account their social, economic, cultural and geographical background;· provide a benefit and cost analysis of policies for protecting remote mountain lakes. A key objective of the project is to ensure that our results are made available to all end-users, especially environmental decision makers:· develop a user friendly database;· provide access to information via the Internet;· hold workshops with end-user groups. Expected impacts Community environmental objectives relevant
