Paradigmatic responses of marine benthic communities to different anthropogenic pressures, using M‐AMBI, within the European Water Framework Directive

Abstract

The use of AMBI and M‐AMBI in benthic quality assessments, within the European Water Framework Directive (WFD), has increased dramatically in recent years. M‐AMBI is a multivariate tool, which incorporates AMBI, richness and Shannon diversity within the assessment. The response of this approach to different human pressures in coastal and estuarine waters has been investigated for the Basque Country (Northern Spain). In this contribution, several paradigmatic examples of these applications to different water bodies are presented. The time‐series extend to samples collected between 1995 and 2007, showing the evolution of M‐AMBI values under different pressures, i.e. urban and industrial discharges, dredging and disposal of sediments, and engineering works (such as land reclamation or marina construction), and, in addition, for illustrating the benthic quality recovery after positive actions have been undertaken, i.e. the removal of point‐source discharges or water treatment programmes. In most cases, M‐AMBI responds to these pressures as expected, with decreases in the ecological status immediately following the pressure. Conversely, when a pressure is removed, the recovery takes between 2 and 15 years, depending upon the intensity of the pressure and the characteristics of the water body. M‐AMBI has been intercalibrated previously in coastal waters. After intercalibration in transitional waters, M‐AMBI will be able to be used in the integrative quality assessment of European water bodies.

Classifying Ecological Quality and Integrity of Estuaries

“…Another concern with the use of biological indicators is the difficulty in relating observed effects back to a particular stres sor that is causing impairment (see Borja et al, 2009d). While the integrative response that biological indicators offer is valu able, the actions taken by managers is typically directed to individual stressors.…”

“…are combined into a single measure designed to maximize the ability to distinguish between degraded versus nondegraded condition; (2) they are developed with an appropriate methodology that accounts for biological variability that is associated with natural estuarine controlling factors such as latitude, salinity, and sediment particle size; and (3) they allow the comparison of values that reflect the degree to which component measures of key biological attributes at one location deviate from corresponding optimum values expected under undisturbed or reference conditions (Díaz et al, 2004). However, there is an urgent need to test the response of this plethora of indices to individual and mixed human pressures, within different geographies, as it has been done for some of them (Chainho et al, 2008;Henriques et al, 2008;Martinho et al, 2008;Borja et al, 2009d;Uriarte and Borja, 2009).…”

“…In this case, application of the methods provide an integrated result; however, it is not possible to identify the primary stressor(s) that are causing the impairment and thus it has the opposite problem of the single stressor focus of the other methods. Although it has been shown that AMBI is reflective of dissolved oxygen conditions (Borja et al, , 2009d and thus reflects one of the eutrophication indicators, it would be an interesting exercise to apply the AMBI and other benthic analysis methods to the Barnegat Bay and Medway estuary and see if the results would be the same.…”

“…Moreover, some additional research is needed in the coming years (see Borja et al, 2009e), including the need to take physical disturbances into account (e.g., dynamic forcing of the systems) and to favor multicriteria approaches, including the indices that are based on the struc ture and production of the communities, in the development of an operating report. Moreover, testing indices with different human pressures are being undertaken in some cases (Calabretta and Oviatt, 2008;Chainho et al, 2008;de Paz et al, 2008a;Josefson et al, 2008;Thrush et al, 2008;Borja et al, 2009d;de-la-Ossa-Carretero et al, 2009), but more tests are needed. Finally, when using indicators and indices, investi gators should be as pragmatic as possible in making them environmentally sustainable, economically viable, technologi cally feasible, socially desirable/tolerable, legally permissible, and politically expedient.…”

Medium- and Long-term Recovery of Estuarine and Coastal Ecosystems: Patterns, Rates and Restoration Effectiveness

“…1). This has resulted in a progressive improvement in the physico-chemical properties (García-Barcina et al 2006), benthic (Borja et al 2006(Borja et al , 2009bBustamante et al 2007;Díez et al 2009) and fish assemblages (Uriarte and Borja 2009; Fig. 1).…”