Use of biotic indices in semi-enclosed coastal ecosystems and transitional waters habitats—Implications for the implementation of the European Water Framework Directive

Abstract

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.

Testing BOPA index in sewage affected soft-bottom communities in the north-western Mediterranean

“…They claim that amphipods associated with the common presence of macroalgae in Adriatic transitional waters are probably sufficient to increase the ecological quality of the station through the BOPA model. Pranovi et al (2007) also found that BOPA showed low discrimination in the Venice lagoon, classifying all the samples in the high category and, in the same way, Blanchet et al (2008) found the same problem, BOPA classified a large majority of stations of the French Coast as acceptable (''good" or ''high" status). Afli et al (2008) also showed that off the Tunisian coast BOPA index appeared to be somewhat severe, classifying only two stations in moderate and poor statuses.…”

“…This index has already been used for monitoring the impact of pollution on different macrobenthic communities (Quintino et al, 2006;Pranovi et al, 2007;Mistri, 2007, 2008; Afli et al, 2008;Blanchet et al, 2008;Bouchet and Sauriau, 2008). However, a biotic index is unlikely to be universally (Pranovi et al, 2007;Afli et al, 2008).…”

Assessment of ecological quality status of Küçükçekmece Bay (Marmara Sea) by applying BENTIX, AMBI, BOPA and BO2A biotic indexes

“…http://epublishing.ekt.gr | e-Publisher: EKT | Downloaded at 12/05/2018 07:03:14 | agreement was measured as 0 or 5, partial agreement as 1 or 4 and disagreement as 2 or 3 (Blanchet et al, 2008).…”

Review and evaluation of estuarine biotic indices to assess benthic condition

“…It is also emphasized the small lists of species, especially crustaceans, included in the attribution of the scores. Another point is that this index presents some limitations when applied to estuaries and lagoons (Simboura and Zenetos, 2002;Blanchet et al, 2007).…”

“…Once it draws on the response of organisms to organic inputs in the ecosystem it does not detect the effects caused by other types of pollution, as for instance toxic pollution (Marín-Guirao et al, 2005). Moreover, this index presents some limitations when applied to semi-enclosed systems (Blanchet et al, 2007). 2.2.2.…”