Use of low-budget monitoring of macroalgae to implement the European Water Framework Directive |
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Authors: | Panayotis Panayotidis Barbara Montesanto Sotiris Orfanidis |
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Institution: | (1) Hellenic Center of Marine Research, 19013 Anavissos, Attica, Greece;(2) Department of Biology, Section of Ecology & Systematics, Athens University, 15784 Panepistimiopolis, Athens, Greece;(3) National Agricultural Research Foundation (NAGREF), Fisheries Research Institute, 64007, Nea Peramos, Kavala, Greece |
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Abstract: | Benthic macroalgal communities constitute one of the ecological quality elements needed to implement the Water Framework Directive
(2000/60/EC), the legislation targetted at sustainable management of the European aquatic environment. As the Directive foresees
the establishment of Ecological Status Class boundaries and Reference Conditions in coastal waters, a study was conducted
on the Attica coast of Greece to identify the best method to use macroalgal community data for evaluating ecological quality
and at the same time keep the program within a low budget. Six seasonal quantitative and qualitative samples were taken from
the upper infralittoral macroalgal communities on the Attica coast of Greece on six occasions between summer 1998 and spring
2002; these sites, which reflect a gradient of anthropogenic perturbation, were used on each occasion. A list of 60 macroalgal
taxa was prepared, the cover value of each taxon was measured and the structure of the vegetation was described. The use of
four different indices (Shannon-Weaver index, Pielou evenness, Multi-Dimensional Scaling plot of Bray-Curtis similarity, Ecological
Evaluation index-EEI) were compared. The multidimensional scaling of Bray-Curtis similarity and the EEI were better at indicating
the perturbation pattern of the study area. However, only the EEI succeeded in distinguishing four quality classes (‘low’
to ‘high’). By using EEI, a spatial scale-weighted evaluation of ecological quality was also performed.
This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date. |
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Keywords: | Water Framework Directive macroalgae coastal waters ecological status monitoring biotic index N-E Mediterranean |
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