Biological validation of physical coastal waters classification along the NE Atlantic region based on rocky macroalgae distribution

Ramos, Elvira; Puente, Araceli; Juanes, José A.; Neto, João M.; Pedersen, A.; Bartsch, Inka; Scanlan, Clare; Wilkes, Robert; Bergh, Erika Van den; Gall, Erwan Ar; Melo, Ricardo

doi:10.1016/j.ecss.2014.05.036

Cited by 17 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…However, correlation coefficients found between anthropogenic pressures and CCO results on one side, the area related co-distribution of low pressure and high EQR ratings on the other side support the accuracy of CCO to assess the ecological status of coastal water bodies. In addition, the implementation of CCO initiated a collaborative project at the French Channel-Atlantic level, with connections at the European scale (Ramos et al, 2014 andGuinda et al, 2014). At last, even though our index is not aimed at assessing the ecological status of assemblages, biocenoses or ecosystems (Ar Gall and Le Duff, 2014;Personnic et al, 2014), the CCO approach developed here differs from other WFD indices by the integration of the community-habitat dimension.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Several questions have been also addressed concerning the ecological significance of observed discrepancies, the putative link with environmental factors such as hydrodynamism, hard substrate availability and sedimentology, and the notion of biogeographical gradient. About biogeography, combined latitudinal and longitudinal gradients and suspected evolutions due to climatic global change, some answers may be found in Ramos et al (2014). About representativeness of the sites and substrates, sixteen sampling sites of our study out of thirty-two were located in water bodies in which soft bottoms dominated, three of them rated high by CCO, twelve good and only one moderate.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A supplementary inter-calibration exercise should be soon attempted with the British RSL index (Wells et al, 2007), in the logic of the new North East Atlantic classification of coastal waters of Europe based on macroalgal communities (Ramos et al, 2014). Following that typology, Atlantic and Channel coasts of France are split in southern Brittany between A2 biotype, common to both Spain and Portugal, and B21 biotype, with the British Isles and Norway.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The distribution of intertidal macroalgae shows a latitudinal gradient which is associated with physical environment traits (sea surface temperature (SST), photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), wave height, tidal range and salinity) (Ramos et al, 2012(Ramos et al, , 2014. As previously mentioned (van den Hoek, 1975;Dinter, 2001), Brittany appears in these studies as a biogeographical transition area which separates the southern from the northern parts of the North East Atlantic coast.…”

Section: Description Of Sampling Areasmentioning

confidence: 94%

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Implementation of a new index to assess intertidal seaweed communities as bioindicators for the European Water Framework Directory

Gall

Duff

Sauriau

et al. 2016

Ecological Indicators

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International audienceAn index CCO (cover, characteristic species, opportunistic species) has been developed for the implementation of the European Water Framework Directory (WFD) in coastal waters, using intertidal macroalgal communities as bio-indicator (Biological Quality Element). CCO is based on the calculation of three metrics corresponding to the global cover of macroalgal communities (metric 1), the number of characteristic species per topographic level/seaweed community (metric 2) and the cover of opportunistic species (metric 3). The final rating is obtained by pooling the scores of the three metrics. Results are given for 32 sites in 29 water bodies, grouped into four biogeographic regions along the Channel–Atlantic coasts of France. Over the six-year study, most of sites were sampled twice each (every three years). CCO index revealed that 25 coastal water bodies of both the Channel and the Bay of Biscay were in good or high ecological quality status (EQS), whereas only 4 of them were moderate and none in poor to bad status. However, significant differences have been found between sites and between geographic regions, water bodies located in Brittany obtaining the best EQS. No significant change occurred between the three-year sampling sets. A significant correlation has been established between a three-component anthropogenic pressure index and CCO ratings, showing the accuracy of CCO to evaluate the impact of anthropic activities on the structure and development of macroalgal communities as indicator of the ecological quality of coastal water bodies

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Description Of Sampling Areasmentioning

confidence: 94%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Implementation of a new index to assess intertidal seaweed communities as bioindicators for the European Water Framework Directory

Gall

Duff

Sauriau

et al. 2016

Ecological Indicators

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“…() developed a classification based on physical variables along the Northeast Atlantic (NEA) coastal waters, which was validated with intertidal macroalgae data (Ramos et al . ). The five main groups obtained in this work were named ‘biotypes’.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An ecological classification of rocky shores at a regional scale: a predictive tool for management of conservation values

2015

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The ecological classification of coastal waters has become an important issue in ecosystem water quality assessment. Previous studies have suggested that abiotic variables seem to be a suitable alternative to biological data for classifying coastal areas at different scales. The study presented here proposes a downscaling methodology for the classification of coastal waters at a regional scale within the NE Atlantic based on standardized data and objective decision rules. Physical variables (temperature, wave exposure, tidal range and radiation) were selected because of their ecological role, availability and statistical decision rules. This information was based on satellite data and mathematical modelling of natural coastal processes. The N and NW Spanish coastline was subdivided into 41 20-km segments that were classified according to physical variables using the self-organizing map and k-means algorithms. To validate the classification with biological data, 21 sites representing the entire range of physical typologies in the study area were simultaneously and consistently sampled. Intertidal macroalgae were identified in each of 10 quadrats of 50 9 50 cm for two to three transects per site, according to a stratified sampling procedure. The coverage of macroalgae was obtained by photographic analysis. The physical classification shows four typologies: Lower Rias, Upper Rias, West Cantabric and East Cantabric. Statistical analyses confirmed the ecological significance of these typologies at the tidal levels where seaweeds were the major structural element (lower and middle intertidal). According to the biological data, the greatest differences were found between the Upper Rias and the rest of the N and NW Iberian Peninsula coast. Thus, the classification methodology has potential application as a management tool.

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Temporal transferability of marine distribution models: The role of algorithm selection

Hoz

Ramos

Puente

et al. 2019

Ecological Indicators

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Biological validation of physical coastal waters classification along the NE Atlantic region based on rocky macroalgae distribution

Cited by 17 publications

References 36 publications

Implementation of a new index to assess intertidal seaweed communities as bioindicators for the European Water Framework Directory

Implementation of a new index to assess intertidal seaweed communities as bioindicators for the European Water Framework Directory

An ecological classification of rocky shores at a regional scale: a predictive tool for management of conservation values

Temporal transferability of marine distribution models: The role of algorithm selection

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