Italian coastal transitional ecosystems (TWs) are ecologically complex systems and therefore the identification of low-cost, routine indicators for description of ecological quality, as requested by European Water Framework Directive (WFD, 2000/60/EC) is a difficult task. Italy is the Member State most behind in Europe with the application of the WFD, and for this reason has received three infringements from the European Communities. No indicator is mentioned in the 152/06 Act, aimed to the application of the WFD in Italy, and methodological flaws are even more evident (as also declared by the Act itself) for TWs. In this perspective, indices able to provide an efficient and realistic description of ecosystem quality status in coastal TWs are urgently needed. In this study, we tested the response of three macrobenthic indices (AMBI, M-AMBI and BITS) in over 400 stations from Italian TWs, from the Northern Adriatic to Sardinia. Our study highlights i) a high correlation between AMBI and BITS results, ii) a high correlation between M-AMBI and species’ diversity and richness, iii) that M-AMBI overweights the number of species since in its calculation they are counted twice, iv) that M-AMBI acts as a “diversity-corrected AMBI”, and, thus, v) it suffers of the reduction of species number along the transitional gradient. Further pros and cons of each index are also discussed
Responses of benthic indicators in Italian coastal transitional ecosystems
MISTRI, Michele;MUNARI, Cristina;
2009
Abstract
Italian coastal transitional ecosystems (TWs) are ecologically complex systems and therefore the identification of low-cost, routine indicators for description of ecological quality, as requested by European Water Framework Directive (WFD, 2000/60/EC) is a difficult task. Italy is the Member State most behind in Europe with the application of the WFD, and for this reason has received three infringements from the European Communities. No indicator is mentioned in the 152/06 Act, aimed to the application of the WFD in Italy, and methodological flaws are even more evident (as also declared by the Act itself) for TWs. In this perspective, indices able to provide an efficient and realistic description of ecosystem quality status in coastal TWs are urgently needed. In this study, we tested the response of three macrobenthic indices (AMBI, M-AMBI and BITS) in over 400 stations from Italian TWs, from the Northern Adriatic to Sardinia. Our study highlights i) a high correlation between AMBI and BITS results, ii) a high correlation between M-AMBI and species’ diversity and richness, iii) that M-AMBI overweights the number of species since in its calculation they are counted twice, iv) that M-AMBI acts as a “diversity-corrected AMBI”, and, thus, v) it suffers of the reduction of species number along the transitional gradient. Further pros and cons of each index are also discussedI documenti in SFERA sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
