Water Framework Directive Marine Plants Task Team Tools Paper ...

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such as Ulothrix and Enteromorpha the species are less morphological distinct therefore requiring a higher taxonomic competency. 3. What are the effects of environmental variables on the levels of species richness and overall composition and how will this affect the final RSL. 4. What are the effects of geographical location on the levels of species richness and overall composition? If there are regional variations, should there be a separate RSL for each of these regions and does each region has sufficient shores from which to produce a reduced species list. 5. How and where will the limits be set for high, good, moderate and poor quality and how will the ecological quality classes from full species richness translate into numbers in the reduced species list The ability to produce a single reduced species list with which to represent and categorise all shores around the British Isles is a rather optimistic approach as there are likely to be several geographical and environmental variables that will interfere with this proposal. There is also a need to acknowledge the various typologies established for the purpose of the WFD and how to account for these including reference conditions for each typology. The study of the effects of environmental variables (Wells and Wilkinson, 2002a) as detailed previously showed certain factors contributed more significantly than others to the overall species richness and species composition. The conclusions drawn from this study helped to contribute to the development of the tool by enabling the MPTT to establish those factors that need to be considered in the compilation of the RSL and whether a single list would suffice for the whole of the British Isles and Republic of Ireland and cover all typologies. The effects of localised variables such as shore type and type of subhabitat have already been accounted for within the shore descriptions. However, another factor that was thought to possibly influence species richness and composition was geographical location and more specifically latitude. To compile a reduced species list that can be used for all shores around the British Isles is highly optimistic as it is known that
certain species are only present on certain types of shores and many species have distinct northern and southern limits. Species records from the database were analysed (excluding those replicate samples from a single site) producing an MDS plot showing the similarity between shores within different areas of the country (Figure 9). Figure 9: MDS plot showing the similarities in species composition and richness between the five countries. The results indicate that England, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland show a higher level of similarity, but Northern Ireland falls out of this grouping. Except for Northern Ireland most of the sites showed a high level of overlapping within the clusters which suggests that the species composition and richness for these areas are similar enough to be combined in the compilation of a reduced species list. However, on removal of the Northern Ireland data from the analysis a second split between England/Wales/RoI and Scotland appears (Figure 10). Given these results it was thought to be more appropriate to compile three separate species lists for NI, Southern England/Wales/RoI and Scotland/Northern England. Unfortunately some areas have very limited data available so these lists may have to be refined as new data is input to
Page 1 and 2: Water Framework Directive Marine Pl
Page 3 and 4: dates will result in a larger speci
Page 5 and 6: Figure 2: Sites included within the
Page 7 and 8: fauna and flora and exposed shores
Page 9 and 10: Table 1: Field sampling sheet to re
Page 11 and 12: These different community factors c
Page 13 and 14: All datasets were tested for normal
Page 15 and 16: Table 3: Calculation of ‘deshor
Page 17: Development of a Reduced Species Li
Page 21 and 22: Figure 11: Map of the UK and Republ
Page 23 and 24: Table 4: Species lists for each of
Page 25 and 26: Table 6: Boundaries values for RSL,
Page 27 and 28: The final metric system works on a
Page 29 and 30: Table 10: Final quality status and
Page 31 and 32: EQR Value EQR Value 1.00 0.80 0.60
Page 33 and 34: EQR Value 1.00 0.80 0.60 0.40 0.20

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