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The Marchica lagoon is the single lagoon on the Mediterranean coast of Morocco. Beside its ecological and socio-economic values, the lagoon is under pressure of a complex mixture of human-mediated stressors (urbanization, pollution, overfishing, tourism, etc.). Nowadays, many institutional efforts have been undertaken to establish a sustainable management plan of the lagoon in the context of an Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) approach. Thus, understanding how these stressors impact upon ecological status and ecosystem services is a sound step for any efficient integral management. Based on sampling performed on June 2014, the present work aimed at assessing the ecological quality status (ES) of the northern part of the lagoon using Cymodocea nodosa (Ucria) Ascherson meadows and benthic macrofauna. 16 stations (11 with C. nodosa and 5 on bare sediment) were sampled using a Van Veen grab. Preliminary results showed differences between stations. Shoots biomass fluctuated between 8.02 and 61.2 g dw m -2 while the roots-rhizomes biomass oscillated between 10.8 and 235.5 g dw m -2 . The root-rhizome and leaf biomass ratio revealed high values (up to 10.8) in the central sector suggesting a potential nutrient enrichment. Benthic macrofauna revealed the presence of 90 species belonging to six zoological groups and dominated by crustaceans, molluscs and polychaetes. The assessment of the ecological quality status, based on benthic macrofauna, was evaluated using Biotic Indices (AMBI, M-AMBI, Benthix, BITS). The results showed partial agreement between single index-derived ES and underlined the dependency of these biotic indices on the habitat characteristics, on the one hand, and the necessity to define specific reference conditions to the Marchica lagoon.PeerJ PrePrints | https://dx.doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.1082v1 | CC-BY 4.0 Open Access |

This study presents an assessment of the diversity and spatial distribution of benthic macrofauna communities along the Moulay Bousselham lagoon and discusses the environmental factors contributing to observed patterns. In the autumn of 2018, 68 stations were sampled with three replicates per station in subtidal and intertidal areas. Environmental conditions showed that the range of water temperature was from 25.0 °C to 12.3 °C, the salinity varied between 38.7 and 3.7, while the average of pH values fluctuated between 7.3 and 8.0. In vegetated habitats, biomass values of the seagrass Zostera noltei Hornemann ranged between 31.7 gDW/m² and 170.2 gDW/m² while the biomass of the seagrass Ruppia cirrhosa (Petagna) Grande between 54.2 gDW/m² and 84.7 gDW/m². Sediment analyses showed that the lagoon is mainly composed of sandy and silty sediments. We recorded 37,165 individuals of macrofauna distributed in 63 taxa belonging to 50 families, with a mean abundance value of 4582.8 ind/m² and biomass average of 22.2 g/m². Distance-based linear modeling analysis (DISTLM) identified sediment characteristics, water parameters and habitat type (biomass of Z. noltei) as the major environmental drivers influencing macrozoobenthos patterns. Our results clearly revealed that the hydrographic regime (marine and terrestrial freshwater), sediment distribution and characteristics and the type of habitat (vegetated vs unvegetated substrate) are the key factors determining the species composition and patterns of macrozoobenthos assemblages.

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