1. NE Atlantic GIG
ECOSTAT April 2013 Summary of NE ATLANTIC GIG Workshop held in Lisbon (24th-25th January 2013)
The Next Phase

2. Status of NEA GIG at the end of 2012 ANNEX I
NE Atlantic GIG
Status of NEA GIG at the end of 2012 ANNEX I
Accepted for “Decision”
Coastal invertebrate macrobenthos for 8a,b,9 and 10
Intertidal macroalgae -rocky shores 1/26a,b,7,8a,9 and 10 (most)
Phytoplankton (Chlorophyll a only) 1/26c
Seagrasses intertidal 3/4
Transitional Fish 11 (most)

3. Status of NEA GIG at the end of 2012 ANNEX II
NE Atlantic GIG
Status of NEA GIG at the end of 2012 ANNEX II
Needs work!
Invertebrate macrobenthos rest of 1/26
Phytoplankton chlorophyll a only 1/26a,b,e,3,4 and 10
Opportunistic macroalgae 1/26, 11
Seagrasses 1/26 and 11

4. Status of NEA GIG at the end of 2012 - Not in Annexes
NE Atlantic GIG
Status of NEA GIG at the end of Not in Annexes
Needs even more work
Saltmarshes - coastal & transitional
Chlorophyll a for transitional waters and rest of phytoplankton metrics
Invertebrate macrobenthos for transitional waters
Opportunistic macroalgae in remaining member states

5. Status of Technical Expert support at the end of 2012
NE Atlantic GIG
Status of Technical Expert support at the end of 2012
NEA GIG lead retiring
Technical leads feeling they had served their time and wished to step down except for Robert Wilkes who has kindly agreed to keep going.
Common theme that it was a lot of work and they were not getting the time and resources from their governments or employers

6. NE Atlantic GIG
Aims of Workshop
To review - technical support for groups and ideally agree new leads
Review - what were the bottlenecks holding up progress
Review - what needed to be done to progress remaining tools and estimate timescales

7. Outputs of Workshop Administration and Operational
NE Atlantic GIG
Outputs of Workshop
Administration and Operational
No progress no volunteers for either GIG lead or technical leads (other than Robert)
Agreed to keep in touch and maintain and develop data bases but difficult to progress without overall leads
co-ordinating

8. NE Atlantic GIG
Outputs of Workshop
Technical and scientific

9. Summary from invertebrate macrobenthos lead
Disagreed with the process: guidelines are not law and alternate ways should be allowed, when achieving consensus of all MSs
CW boundaries: Phase I results should be accepted (small differences)
I recommend to reduce the TW dataset to selected locations with enough data to compare methods (data management was very time consuming)
TW invertebrates are dominated by natural conditions (difficult to derive pressure dataset that would correspond strongly with the classification EQRs
Pressure data was occasionally subjective and could not be fully standardised
It was often unclear as to what was acceptable to successfully IC, with time being spent by the group on processes that were eventually not accepted.
Compromise in methods with Comparability Criteria (e.g. allow IC specific reference conditions, modification of benchmarking process, etc.).
Comparability Criteria must be biological quality element specific.
Benchmarking: It would be valuable to adopt a method that allows for curvilinear relationships between the MS methods.
Combine all data into a single type: Reference conditions are set per habitat type which have greater relevance to the benthos than sub-types.
Ensure that the ecological relevance of the results is not compromised by the statistical procedures.

10. IntMMMOpportunistic Macroalgae
Transitional Waters
Improve pressure relationship or develop new one
Increase dataset
Correct for physical compounding factors
Are the statistics being used suitable for the exercise?
Coastal Waters
- As for transitional waters
Require Further work comparing different-scale methods (UK,IE in situ vs FR,DE remote)

11. Saltmarshes Diversity of WB in shape, size, latitude,salinity
NE Atlantic GIG
Saltmarshes
Diversity of WB in shape, size, latitude,salinity
Different assessment concepts
Some pressures are overlooked and have different interpretations
Saltmarsh zonation in TW upper reaches not as clear as in higher salinity zones
Limited number of EQR to make geographical or subtypological subgroups

12. Phytoplankton Uncertainty of robustness of pressure data
NE Atlantic GIG
Phytoplankton
Uncertainty of robustness of pressure data
Need to update biological database ensuring clean data.
Need early meeting with statistician.
Need at least 2 years phased work on chlorophyll and elevated cell counts rest of the metrics later.

13. Seagrasses Highly varied Low confidence in intercalibration database
NE Atlantic GIG
Seagrasses
Highly varied
Low confidence in intercalibration database
Low confidence in pressure data set
Debate whether surface area is a suitable measure of abundance.
More confidence in TW as more countries involved
Very unlikely to be fully complete in 2013

14. Request for support from the Commission and Member States
NEA GIG
COMMON THEMES
Member State support for expert’s involvement has been falling away
Virtually all groups need time with statistician to support and discuss issues unique to their BQE.
Particular difficulty with pressure data sets and transitional waters
Need to ensure ecological principals are not pushed to one side by rigid statistical procedures
Seek flexibility in guidance where the majority experts believe it to be technically justified

16. NE Atlantic GIG

17. Expectations of this meeting III
NE Atlantic GIG
Expectations of this meeting III
Identify the timescales required are we looking at 1 or 3 years?
Understand what the latest position, signed off by the Commission, means for the use of national methods and reporting.
Identify leads for BQEs where the existing lead wishes to stand down
Identify whether a new GIG Coordinator is required as I am retiring at the end of the month

18. Brief History I Phase 2 should have finished early in 2012
NE Atlantic GIG
Brief History I
Phase 2 should have finished early in 2012
Technical difficulties and further development of guidance delayed some final reports
Reports were reviewed both within the Commission and by external peers

19. NE Atlantic GIG
Brief History II
The intercalibrations for the majority of BQEs were felt to need further development (including much of what had been originally been signed off in Phase 1)
It was agreed to divide the outputs into Annexes with only those in Annex 1 deemed to be complete (Wouter will expand on this)
Further time has now been agreed to allow further development

20. Expectations of this meeting I
NE Atlantic GIG
Expectations of this meeting I
To restart the NE Atlantic GIG to steer this new phase
To receive updates from ECOSTAT and JRC
To understand where we are in the intercalibration process for each BQE

21. Expectations of this meeting II
NE Atlantic GIG
Expectations of this meeting II
Discuss and highlight what have been the problems, limiting factors and issues
Discuss how we might work through the problems and identify whether we need a change of approach
Identify what help we might need from JRC, statistical advisers or other external experts.

22. Structure of the meeting Day 1
NE Atlantic GIG
Structure of the meeting Day 1
Presentation on the Commission’s decisions, ECOSTAT’s views and the potential for further support from JRC
Presentations on the initial assessment of where we are for each BQE given by the leads from Phase 2
Brief presentation on WISER to remind us of the potential resource to aid intercalibration development

23. Structure of the meeting Day 2
NE Atlantic GIG
Structure of the meeting Day 2
Hold break out groups for each BQE
To develop work priorities and estimate timescales
Briefly all meet up to hear reports of the key outcomes from each BQE

24. Any additional matters anyone wishes to discuss?
NE Atlantic GIG
Any additional matters anyone wishes to discuss?

25. NE Atlantic GIG