Quality assurance of phytoplankton monitoring in the Baltic Sea - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

HELCOM STATE&CONSERVATION 9-2018, 23 – 24 October, Copenhagen

HELCOM Phytoplankton Expert Group (PEG) Quality assurance of phytoplankton monitoring in the Baltic Sea (HELCOM PEG QA)

• Outcome from the last meeting - 9-13 April 2015, Gothenburg, Sweden
• New project proposal for 2020 - 2022

Iveta Jurgensone

iveta.jurgensone@lhei.lv Daugavpils University Agency Latvian Institute of Aquatic Ecology Department of Marine Monitoring Daugavgrivas srt. 8. Riga, LV-1048 LATVIA www.lhei.lv

Practical phytoplankton course:

• no expert had been invited as a teacher, PEG members taught each other,

Update of the Biovolume file:

• adding of Aphia ID and Aphia-link according to WoRMS
• updating of species synonyms
• adding new species and size classes
• some of species in Biovolume file are not listed in AlgaeBase or WoRMS

Updating the HELCOM Guideline for Phytoplankton

HELCOM STATE&CONSERVATION 9-2018, 23 – 24 October, Copenhagen

Updating the “Cyanobacteria biomass 1990 - 2017” (Baltic Sea Environmental Fact Sheet)

• PEG agree to continue updating the fact sheet with data from 2018

Latest information and discussions about the HELCOM Phytoplankton indicator work:

• Diatom-dinoflagellate index
• Seasonal succession of dominating phytoplankton groups
• Cyanobacterial bloom index (CyaBI)

HELCOM STATE&CONSERVATION 9-2018, 23 – 24 October, Copenhagen

Harmonization between the HELCOM PEG biovolume file and the CEN standard EN-16695:2015

• check the species with the largest differences in biovolume and

geometric shapes of cell

Image gallery on the Nordic microalgae website

• the agreed photos (different groups) of the PEG will be uploaded

to www.NordicMicroalgae.org by the originators

HELCOM STATE&CONSERVATION 9-2018, 23 – 24 October, Copenhagen

Presentation of the German 2016 Phytoplankton ring test

• ring test organized by the Quality Assurance Panel of the German Marine

Monitoring Program of the North Sea and Baltic Sea located at the Federal Environment Agency

Presentation of the SYKE Phytoplankton proficiency test Prof Test 12/2017: Baltic Sea and freshwater species identification

• test organized by Finish Marine Institute (SYKE)

HELCOM STATE&CONSERVATION 9-2018, 23 – 24 October, Copenhagen

HELCOM STATE&CONSERVATION 9-2018, 23 – 24 October, Copenhagen

Additional presentations during the meeting:

• Presentation of the software Plankton Tool Box by Ann-Turi Skjevik and

Marie Johansen from SMHI, Sweden,

• Extra topic – blood red ice along the Baltic Sea coast winter 2018 by

Heidi Hällfors from SYKE, Finland,

• The distribution of cyanobacteria in the Baltic Proper observed using novel

methods in summer 2017 by Bengt Karlson, from SMHI, Sweden,

• Experiences from analyzing multi-country phytoplankton data downloaded

from www.ices.dk by Bengt Karlson, from SMHI, Sweden

Next meeting in 2018:

• will be held in in Riga or Daugavpils, Latvia from 8-12 April ,
• training course on diatoms,
• updating of the Biovolume file,
• regular tasks.

HELCOM STATE&CONSERVATION 9-2018, 23 – 24 October, Copenhagen

Message to HELCOM State and Conservation group:

• the main focus of the PEG is to improve the quality of phytoplankton

monitoring in the Baltic Sea area and to harmonize sampling, analytical methods and analytical skills,

• it is not clear the phytoplankton guidelines still is a part of the HELCOM Combine

manual, how to refer to this and other guidelines at the webpage and the document should contain last update date,

• PEG continues to provide data to the indicator ”Cyanobacterial Bloom Index

(CyaBI)”,

• indicators still in development will be discussed in the future if presented

at the meeting,

• PEG asks the money support for participation in the tests like SYKE Prof Test,
• some of the funding can be used for presentations of ring test results and for

additional statistics from the results.

HELCOM STATE&CONSERVATION 9-2018, 23 – 24 October, Copenhagen

New project proposal 2020 – 2022

The main activity within the project:

• training courses,
• intercalibrations,
• further unifying the counting method ,
• updating of the biovolume file,
• harmonization of biovolume calculations between CEN standard

EN16695:2015 and the PEG biovolume list,

• production of environmental fact sheets,
• platform for phytoplankton indicators.

HELCOM STATE&CONSERVATION 9-2018, 23 – 24 October, Copenhagen

The outcome of the project will be:

• annual reports from the 3 workshops. Annual revised species/biovolume list of

Baltic Sea phytoplankton species,

• updated HELCOM Monitoring manual for Phytoplankton – Species composition,

abundance and biomass,

• will be discuss the existing and possible new phytoplankton indicators,
• updated HELCOM environmental fact sheet (Cyanobacteria biomass),
• outcome of the intercalibration results and discussions in the workshop report,
• continuation of contribution of quality-checked imagines to the HELCOM PEG

image gallery at, www.Nordicmicroalgae.org,

• final report (2020-2022).

Suggested host countries for workshops are: Poland in 2020, Sweden in 2021 and Denmark in 2022

HELCOM STATE&CONSERVATION 9-2018, 23 – 24 October, Copenhagen

Thank you for your attention!

Photo from Marléne Johansson, 2018