•This paper concern Taxonomic Sufficiency, sensitive amphipods and tolerant polychaetes.•Three indices are tested on 18 locations impacted by diverse anthropogenic pressures.•Correlations between ...indices suggest to limit TS at the level of Polychaete opportunist families.•EcoQs given by the BPOFA was very similar to those given by the BO2A.
Among the macro-invertebrates used for the assessment of soft-bottom communities, most polychaetes are classified as tolerant/opportunistic to pollution while amphipods are considered as sensitive. These taxa have been used in several ecological indices, such as the simple abundance ratio between Polychaeta and Amphipoda or the Benthic Opportunist Annelids Amphipods (BO2A) index, to assess the Ecological Quality Status -EcoQs- of soft-bottom communities. In terms of Taxonomic Sufficiency (TS), the polychaete/amphipod ratio (i.e. at the level of the class/order) has been proved to be effective in identifying major changes in benthic communities following disturbances. However, an underlying issue is to assess the acceptable TS limit value needed to state accurately the quality of the benthic environment. We tested three indices using 18 series of observations carried out in five north-eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean zones impacted by oil spills, oil and gas production, brine and urban sewage, harbours and aquaculture farms within impacted and control areas. Similar results to BO2A were obtained when limiting the TS at the level of Polychaete opportunistic families, which required a lower degree of taxonomic expertise, and classifying all amphipods as sensitive taxa. In such a way that the EcoQs given by the BPOFA (Benthic Polychaete Opportunistic Families Amphipods) was very similar to those given by the BO2A (Benthic Opportunistic Annelids Amphipods).
This work is an overview of all available benthic data collected in the Algerian harbours between 1983 and 2001. So, total of 571 stations were reported in the 10 major Algerian harbours along the ...Algerian coast (1200km). Two main categories of harbours were distinguished according to their hydrodynamic regime and volume of water exchange between inner harbour basins and the entrance of the harbours. Univariate, multivariate, benthic indices and Biological Traits of Life approaches were applied on stations sampled in the late 1990s and long-term observations in six out of these ten harbours. These approaches assessed the main characteristics and ecological statuses from these south Mediterranean harbours. One of the main characteristics of the Algerian harbours was the very high species diversity (847 species). Although all the fauna was dominated by pollution-tolerant species; some harbours such as Bethioua and Djendjen hosted normal benthic communities as found in the open sea, but also included some pollution indicator species typical of a slight polluted system. On the contrary, the newly constructed port of Skikda showed perturbed benthic communities in relation to hydrocarbon pollution. Biological Traits of Life analysis reinforced the separation of benthic species along a gradient reflecting their sensitivity or tolerance to pollution. This response was related to an increase in organic matter content, probably associated with a general organic and metal contamination, from the entrance of the harbour to the innermost basins in areas with weak circulation, high sedimentation rate and concentrations of pollutants. Except for Oran harbour, where the poor to moderate ecological status remained unchanged with time, the other harbours showed an improvement or a slight degradation. A strategy of long-term monitoring should be promoted, based on a restricted and selected number of stations characteristic of the different basins and water masses occupying the harbours.
•Macrobenthos of ten Algerian harbours was study between 1983 and 2001.•Main characteristic of the macrofauna is the very high species diversity.•Ecological status of the harbour basins correspond to their degree of pollution.•BTA reinforces the separation of benthic species along a pollution gradient.•Except Oran, other harbours show a temporal improvement in the 1990s.
Dredged material dumping is one of the most important human activities to be considered in coastal zone management. Searching for a new site for depositing the sediment dredged from the entrance of ...the navigation channel of Rouen harbour in the Seine estuary is complicated because of the combined natural heritage and anthropogenic constraints. This paper presents the intricate background and the collaborative efforts of the Seine estuary tripartite authority (National Government-Rouen Harbour-Scientific Committee) to initiate an ecosystem approach for managing waste. The selection of a future potential dumping area stems from a consideration of economic and logistic factors, both marine and environmental, as well as various natural and anthropogenic constraints in the complex ecosystem of the Seine estuary. It appears that a site with fine-to-medium clean sand situated offshore from the mouth of the Seine estuary would be a good candidate from the biological and economic points of view. Additional procedures on two experimental sites will be necessary before the French government can give a final decision to authorize the Rouen harbour to exploit this new deposit location.
•Selecting a new disposal site in the Seine estuary's is complex.•Collaborative approach between Rouen harbour and stakeholders permit to select a potential site.•Machu site seems acceptable, both ecologically and economically.•Two different sediment experiments are conducted in 2012–2013 to test several deposit procedures.
Sensitivity of amphipods to sewage pollution de-la-Ossa-Carretero, J.A.; Del-Pilar-Ruso, Y.; Giménez-Casalduero, F. ...
Estuarine, coastal and shelf science,
01/2012, Letnik:
96
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Amphipods are considered a sensitive group to pollution but here different levels of sensitivity were detected among species, by analysing the impact of five sewage outfalls, with different flow and ...treatment levels, on amphipod assemblages from the Castellon coast (NE Spain). Sewage pollution produced a decrease in the abundance and richness of amphipods close to the outfalls. Most of the species showed high sensitivity, particularly species such as
Bathyporeia borgi,
Perioculodes longimanus and
Autonoe spiniventris, whereas other species appeared to be more tolerant to the sewage input, such as
Ampelisca brevicornis. These different responses could be related to burrowing behaviour, with fossorial species being more sensitive and domicolous species being less affected. Benthic amphipods, which live in direct contact with sediment, are widely used for bioassay and numerous species are usually employed in ecotoxicology tests for diverse contaminants. In order to consider amphipods for monitoring and biodiversity programmes, it is important to establish the degree of sensitivity of each species to different sources of pollution.
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► Amphipods showed a general sensitivity to sewage outfalls related to flow and treatment level. ► But not all species showed the same level of sensitivity. ► Species, such as
B. borgi,
A. spiniventris or
P.s longimanus, showed high sensitivity. ► Whereas
Ampelisca brevicornis appeared to be more tolerant. ► These different responses could be related to burrowing behaviour.
► We illustrate through case studies the usefulness and complementarities of empirical and modelling methods to assess ecosystem health. ► Each method to derive indicators described in the case ...studies considers a different degree of integration of biological and habitat components of the ecosystem. ► A necessary trade-off will occur between capturing the complexity of the system and preserving the conceptual simplicity of the assessment. ► The combination of attributes that consider different aspects of the system can provide a more integrative view of ecosystem health.
A major challenge in ocean and coastal management is to find simple ways to evaluate the health of such complex ecosystems. This task may prove complicated as selection criteria needs to be established for choosing appropriate indicators and evaluation tools which do not mask or leave out inherent ecosystem properties and dynamics. Here, we review some empirical analyses and modelling techniques which can be used to derive environmental health indicators. With a series of case studies ranging from the combined use of structural and functional attributes of the system, to modelling outputs that integrate the biological and physical environments, we illustrate the usefulness and complementarities of these methods to assess ecosystem health. The choice of relevant indicators will depend on the ecological questions raised as well as the biological and habitat components considered which can range from a single level (individual or population) to multiple levels (community or ecosystem-based indicators) in the ecosystem. Each method has its own capabilities and limitations that may render it useful or insufficient in some cases. We suggest, however, that, whenever possible, the combination of ecological attributes and tools should be used to improve our knowledge and assessment of marine ecosystems for better management and conservation in the future.
Dauvin and Pezy presents their evaluation of the dredge spoil disposal (DSD) index which was developed to identify the impact of dredge spoil disposal based on the response of the macrofauna to the ...type of seabed pertubation. It demonstrated the test to two experimental dredged material deposits in Bay of Seine, Englsih channel.
Polychaete/amphipod ratio revisited Dauvin, J.C.; Ruellet, T.
Marine pollution bulletin,
2007, 2007-00-00, 2007-1-00, 20070101, Letnik:
55, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
In this paper, we reexamine the opportunistic polychaete/amphipod ratio, modifying it to allow estuarine and coastal communities to be divided into the five classes suggested by the European Water ...Framework Directive (WFD). The resulting biological index, called the BOPA index, considers the total number of individuals collected in the samples, the frequency of opportunistic polychaetes, and the frequency of amphipods (except the genus
Jassa). After comparing this new index to AMBI and BENTIX, two other indices that have been proposed in the literature, we tested it in two situations involving soft-bottom communities in the English Channel (Bay of Morlaix and Bay of Seine). Our results show that the BOPA index is simple to use. Amphipods and opportunistic polychaetes (21 species, nine genus and two families from the AZTI list for a total of 3459 taxa) are easy to identify, providing that both the number of these organisms in a sample and the total number of individuals collected (independent of the sampling surface) is known. The BOPA is appropriate for use in the poorest communities whose total number of individuals exceeds 20 individuals.
This study deals with the application of macrozoobenthos-based biotic indices (BI) within the frame of the implementation of the European Water Framework Directive. More precisely, this study aimed ...at assessing the performance of five recently developed methodologies (BI) for the assessment of ecological quality status (EcoQ) in two semi-enclosed, sheltered coastal ecosystems and in one transitional water body situated along the Western French coast, namely Marennes-Oléron Bay, Arcachon Bay, and the Seine Estuary. This study showed that these five indices rarely agreed with each other, describing very different pictures of the overall EcoQ of the three study sites. This work also clearly underlined the limitations of these approaches, notably the dependency of most of these BI and the resulting EcoQ classifications on habitat characteristics, more particularly to natural levels of sediment silt–clay content and the location of stations in the subtidal or the intertidal. The implication of our observations concerning the use of these BI for implementation of the WFD is discussed in terms of definition of habitat-specific reference conditions and necessity to adjust thresholds to the particular habitat occurring in semi-enclosed ecosystems. Meanwhile, the unmodified use of these BI severely impaired accurate assessment of EcoQ and decision-making on the managers’ point of view.
The interest in benthic indicators for soft-bottom marine communities has dramatically increased after a rather long period of relative stagnation due to the need for new tools to assess the status ...of marine waters, called for by the Clean Water Act and the Water Framework Directive. Our expertise on benthic communities has permitted us to gather a vast amount of data from diverse water bodies under unpolluted and polluted conditions (e.g., accidental oil spill, sewage, long-term anthropogenic estuarine constraints) in tidal estuaries, harbours, and on the coastal shelf from Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. We compared the results of four biotic indices on the various available datasets: Shannon-Wiener
H′ diversity, AMBI and BO2A, which divide the species into Ecological Groups, and ITI, which divides the species into trophic groups, and the agreement of Best Professional Judgement (BPJ) on the assessment of ecological conditions. Benthic indicators as “
sentinel species”, which is a particular species that by its presence or its relative abundance warns of possible unbalances in the surrounding environment or distortions in community functions, was also tested. Indicators, BPJ and opportunist sentinel species gave similar ECoQS for the different sampling sites. We discuss the use of Biological Indicators as ‘objective’ or ‘subjective’ alternatives for assessing soft-bottom communities, and propose to employ simple methods such as BPJ and taxonomy sufficiency in such diagnostic approaches.
The
Amoco Cadiz oil spill in 1978, and the
Aegean Sea oil spill in 1992, affected soft-bottom communities, respectively from the Bay of Morlaix (western English Channel) and from the Rı́a de Ares and ...Betanzos in the north-western Iberian peninsula. These infralittoral communities on muddy fine sand showed similar species composition and structure and occurred in similar hydro-climatic conditions. The effects of the spills were identical in both areas with the disappearance of the amphipods especially those from the amphipod genus
Ampelisca with a very low colonization of these species during the four years after the spill. The recovery rate of the amphipods was slow but progressive. In such communities no proliferation of opportunistics was observed after the stress. In the sites, where polychaetes dominated before the spill, they remained dominant, whereas other sites showed very low total abundances during the two years after the spill due to the absence of compensation for the disappearance of these crustaceans. In fact, there was a very low impact of the spill on polychaetes, but a high one on amphipods. In the future, it is suggested to focus monitoring after a spill only on a single amphipod group proposed as a bioindicator for detecting the impact of pollution. A polychaete/amphipod ratio is proposed to reflect temporal change of soft-bottom communities analogous to the nematode/copepod previously suggested for the meiobenthos. Detailed knowledge of the qualitative and quantitative structure of a benthic community is still needed in order to identify very precisely the effect of a pollution event.
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