Marine quality assessment by use of benthic species-abundance distributions: a proposed new protocol within the European Union Water Framework Directive

Rosenberg, Rutger; Blomqvist, Mats; Nilsson, Hans C.; Cederwall, Hans; Dimming, Anna

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2004.05.013

Cited by 388 publications

(212 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…In contrast to the rather devastating picture of the situation along the bottoms of the inner archipelago described in previous paragraphs, the City of Stockholm Environmental Monitoring Programme, applying the Benthic Quality Index (Rosenberg et al 2004), has shown a gradually improving status in the macroinvertebrate community since the middle of the 1990s (Lännergren et al 2007). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Indications of Recovery from Hypoxia in the Inner Stockholm Archipelago

Karlsson

Jonsson

Lindgren

et al. 2010

AMBIO

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Improved benthic conditions compared to the 1990s were found during benthic investigations, including sediment and benthic macrofauna in the inner Stockholm archipelago during 2008. In the 1990s, these areas were dominated by black and laminated surface sediments and very sparse fauna. A clear relationship was found when comparing sediment status with the benthic macrofauna. Reduced surface sediment and impoverished macroinvertebrate community was only found at one sampling station representing an enclosed part of the inner archipelago, whereas the other seven stations, with depths ranging from 20 to 50 m, had oxidized surface sediments and considerable biomasses of benthic macrofauna (6-65 g m -2 ) dominated by the invading polychaete Marenzelleria neglecta. An extrapolation of the results shows that, within the investigated area, the coverage of reduced surface sediments had decreased from approximately 17% in the late 1990s to 4% in 2008.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Indications of Recovery from Hypoxia in the Inner Stockholm Archipelago

Karlsson

Jonsson

Lindgren

et al. 2010

AMBIO

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“…So far, only soft-substrate habitats have been included in the development and application of benthic-relevant WFD indicators for estuaries (e.g. Borja et al, 2000;Rosenberg et al, 2004;Dauvin and Rullet, 2007). Hard-substrate depending benthos, however, has been largely neglected, though some attempts have been made to apply existing soft-bottom indicators to hard-substrate environments (Kalkan et al, 2007) or to develop specific indicators for this requirement (Orlando-Bonaca et al, 2012).…”

Section: Tablementioning

confidence: 99%

“…So far, only soft-substrate habitats have been included in the identification of the estuarine EQS (e.g. Borja et al, 2000;Rosenberg et al, 2004;Dauvin and Rullet, 2007) while hard-substrate depending benthos has been largely neglected. This is surprising in the light of the fact that the fauna on hard substrates is usually more diverse (Bustamante et al, 2007), because artificial hard-substrate habitats are characterized by reduced predation and competition due to the ample availability of space (Connell, 2001;Airoldi et al, 2005;Bulleri and Airoldi, 2005;Glasby et al, 2007;Reise et al, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Artificial structures in sediment-dominated estuaries and their possible influences on the ecosystem

Wetzel

Scholle

Teschke

2014

Marine Environmental Research

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a b s t r a c tArtificial substrates are omnipresent today in most estuaries mostly in form of massive rip-rap used for groynes and jetties. In the Weser estuary, Germany, 60% of the shoreline is covered with such artificial substrates while, natural rocky substrate is lacking, as in all Wadden Sea estuaries. This large quantity of artificial substrates may be colonized by a benthic hard-substrate community which differs from the local natural soft-substrate assemblage. In this study we examined species compositions, abundances, biomass, and numbers of species of subtidal benthic communities on groynes and in the natural habitat, the sediment, along the salinity gradient of the Weser estuary. Species composition changed on both substrates significantly with salinity and was also significantly different between the substrates. In a comparison with the sediment, the groynes did not provide any benefit for non-indigenous nor for endangered species in terms of abundance, biomass, and number of species, but represent habitats with higher total abundances and biomass; though some non-indigenous species even occurred exclusively on groynes. In particular, groynes supported filter-feeding organisms which play an important role by linking benthic and pelagic food webs. The dominance of the suspension feeders affects crucial estuarine ecosystem services and may have important implications for the estuarine management by altering the estuarine ecological quality status. Hence, artificial substrates should be considered in future conservation planning and in ecological quality monitoring of the benthic fauna according to the European Water Framework Directive.

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“…EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) and Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) consider a number of ecological quality parameters, both having benthic component involved (as "Macrofauna" in WFD and "Sea floor integrity" in MSFD). There is a number of biotic metrics proposed for the benthic ecological quality assessment, including (but not limited to) Infaunal Trophic Index (ITI) (Maurer et al 1998); Benthic Index of Biotic Integrity (B-IBI) (Kerans and Karr 1994); AztiMarine Biotic Index (AMBI) (Borja et al 2000); Benthic Quality Index (BQI) (Rosenberg et al 2004); Benthic Opportunistic Polychaetes and Amphipods Index (BOPA) (Dauvin and Ruellet 2007); Infaunal Quality Index (IQI) (Kennedy et al 2011). All of them are species richness based indices utilizing quantitative characteristics of benthic communities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In order to challenge this hypothesis, we assessed the performance of Benthic Quality Index (BQI) in a coastal ecosystem, highly affected by the zebra mussel Dreissena polymorpha. BQI is a widely used multimetric indicator of benthic community condition and functionality (Rosenberg et al 2004, Fleischer et al 2007, Fleischer and Zettler 2009, Leonardson et al 2009). Although designed for application in marine areas (Borja et al 2003, Rosenberg et al 2004, it has proved to be suitable for areas with strong salinity gradients given that tolerance levels of species are properly adjusted and assigned for the specific area .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Invasive ecosystem engineers and biotic indices: Giving a wrong impression of water quality improvement?

Zaiko

Daunys

2015

Ecological Indicators

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Abstract:Benthic component of an ecosystem is considered in ecological status assessment of the key European Directives. Most of the metrics proposed for the benthic quality assessment are biodiversity based. Their robustness and applicability are widely discussed in many recent studies. However an impact of invasive alien species on biotic indices and environmental quality assessments has been largely overlooked by researchers so far. In the current study we assessed Benthic Quality Index (BQI) in a coastal ecosystem, highly affected by the invasive zebra mussel Dreissena polymorpha. Zebra mussel is able of modifying benthic habitats and enhancing local biodiversity. In the analyzed ecosystem it affected benthic species richness, abundance and community structure. As a result the calculated BQI values were significantly higher in the presence of zebra mussel with evident outliers in samples with particularly high zebra mussel abundances. Therefore we found that BQI determined in our study was artificially elevated providing false signal of the ecological status improvement. Based on the results presented, we suggested data correction framework that has been tested on the current dataset and proved to be effective minimizing zebra mussel impact on BQI assessment. Our experience could be applied for other coastal ecosystems invaded by the zebra mussel or any other aquatic invasive species with resembling biological traits and bioinvasion impacts. Highlights: We test the effect of an invasive alien species on ecological quality assessment  We calculate Benthic Quality Index for the coastal lagoon affected by zebra mussel  Zebra mussel may modify benthic habitats enhancing local biodiversity  This might bias BQI by showing false improvement of ecological status  We suggest a framework how the this bias could be minimized

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Marine quality assessment by use of benthic species-abundance distributions: a proposed new protocol within the European Union Water Framework Directive

Cited by 388 publications

References 35 publications

Indications of Recovery from Hypoxia in the Inner Stockholm Archipelago

Indications of Recovery from Hypoxia in the Inner Stockholm Archipelago

Artificial structures in sediment-dominated estuaries and their possible influences on the ecosystem

Invasive ecosystem engineers and biotic indices: Giving a wrong impression of water quality improvement?

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