Benthic indicators to use in Ecological Quality classification of Mediterranean soft bottom marine ecosystems, including a new Biotic Index

By N. Simboura, Argyro Zenetos. 2002

605 citations recorded by the source corpus.

A general scheme for approaching the objective of Ecological Quality Status (EcoQ) classification of zoobenthic marine ecosystems is presented. A system based on soft bottom benthic indicator species and related habitat types is suggested to be used for testing the typological definition of a given water body in the Mediterranean. Benthic indices including the Shannon-Wiener diversity index and the species richness are re-evaluated for use in classification. Ranges of values and of ecological quality categories are given for the diversity and species richness in different habitat types. A new biotic index (BENTIX) is proposed based on the relative percentages of three ecological groups of species grouped according to their sensitivity or tolerance to disturbance factors and weighted proportionately to obtain a formula rendering a five step numerical scale of ecological quality classification. Its advantage against former biotic indices lies in the fact that it reduces the number of the ecological groups involved which makes it simpler and easier in its use. The Bentix index proposed is tested and validated with data from Greek and western Mediterranean ecosystems and examples are presented. Indicator species associated with specific habitat types and pollution indicator species, scored according to their degree of tolerance to pollution, are listed in a table. The Bentix index is compared and evaluated against the indices of diversity and species richness for use in classification. The advantages of the BENTIX index as a classification tool for ECoQ include independence from habitat type, sample size and taxonomic effort, high discriminative power and simplicity in its use which make it a robust, simple and effective tool for application in the Mediterranean Sea.

Subfields: Global and Planetary Change, Oceanography

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/8c27abe2063a47ffc292a8f7924793131f690727

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Citations in the corpus

Using historical data, expert judgement and multivariate analysis in assessing reference conditions and benthic ecological status, according to the European Water Framework Directive. (2007, background): “Several indices have been proposed for use in marine waters, some of which attempt to include the five-step environmental model of the WFD (Borja et al., 2000, 2003a, 2004b; Simboura and Zenetos, 2002; Rosenberg et al., 2004).”
Classifying Ecological Quality and Integrity of Estuaries (2011, background): “In the case of the methods that use soft-bottom benthic community analysis (i.e., AMBI, BENTIX, B-IBI, and ISD; Table 11), the data provide a result that is integrative but not in the same way as the other methods.”
Review of recent carrying capacity models for bivalve culture and recommendations for research and management (2006, background): “Other more recently-developed indices (e.g., Weisberg et al., 1997; Warwick and Clarke, 1998; Borja et al., 2000; Llansó et al., 2002a; Llansó et al., 2002b; Simboura and Zenetos, 2002; Salas et al., 2004; Muxika et al., 2005) may be more appropriate and could easily be used in lieu of the ITI, alth”
Sensitivity of amphipods to sewage pollution (2012, background): “Another caprellid species, Pariambius typicus showed a certain sensitivity to sewage presence, but it was classified with some tolerance in the AMBI and BENTIX lists.”
Polychaete/amphipod ratios: An approach to validating simple benthic indicators (2016, neutral): “In the same way, Simboura and Zenetos (2002) also proposed a new index (BENTIX) developed for the Mediterranean 9 cal Ind S l t o q m s b r i e a t ( C l w G h ( c o d t o ( i o p a a d b u o o Z A O w p t n i p g s a g o S l ( t T M C t L m s a w 0 J.C. Dauvin et al. / Ecologi ea.”
Integrating ecological, economic and social aspects to generate useful management information under the EU Directives' ‘ecosystem approach’ (2012, background): “Blanchet et al. (2008) investigated the AMBI (AZTI marine biotic index; Borja et al., 2000), BENTIX (BENTIX biotic index; Simboura and Zenetos, 2002), ShannoneWiener diversity, BQI (Benthic Quality Index; Rosenberg et al., 2004) and BOPA (Benthic Opportunistic Polychaeta Amphipoda index; Dauvin and…”
A synthesis of the biological quality elements for the implementation of the European Water Framework Directive in the Mediterranean ecoregion: The case of Saronikos Gulf (2005, methodology): “The BENTIX index (Simboura and Zenetos, 2002) was designed to fit the Mediterranean benthic ecosystem and to render a five step numerical scheme for the classification of benthic communities.”