Seasonal implications of the benthic ecological status assessment in a protected Mediterranean coastal lagoon: Stagno Longu of Posada (Sardinia, Italy)

Orro, Cristina; Cabana, David

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.1/16766

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Authors

Orro, Cristina

Cabana, David

Abstract(s)

Understanding how biotic indicators respond to natural variability is essential for the health stateevaluationofthebenthicecosystems.Thisstudyanalysedthecompositionandstructureofthebenthiccommunities in the coastal lagoon Stagno Longu of Posada (Sardinia) to investigate the seasonalresponse of the biological indicator M-AMBI. Multivariate analysis and biodiversity descriptors showedtemporal (winter–summer) and spatial variability (across the three basins of the lagoon).The ecological status (ES) of Stagno Longu was assessed using M-AMBI index: results mainlyshowed the lagoon to be in ‘‘good’’ and ‘‘moderate’’ status across seasons and basins, while ‘‘poor’’status was recorded in the North basin during summer.Despite the absence of direct human pressures, sediment organic content (OC) varied seasonallyand spatially and M-AMBI revealed winter to summer shifts on the ES of 3 out of 6 sampling stations.Overall, this study reveals negative significative correlation on the variations on M-AMBI with theincrease of sediment OC across the studied sites, none the less discrepancies on the ES of certainstations were detected causing over/underestimation.Results suggested that natural seasonal variability is a relevant factor to be considered whileperforming ES assessments and implementing monitoring programmes in Mediterranean transitionalecosystems when applying indicators such as M-AMBI.

Keywords

Seasonal variability Benthic macroinvertebrates Sediment composition Transitional ecosystems Mediterranean coastal lagoon M-AMB Iindex Ecological status