Multiple indices on different habitats and descriptors provide consistent assessments of environmental quality in a marine protected area

Frontiers in Marine Science

Marine Science

Maria Leonor Garcia Gutiérrez¹  Fabrizio Atzori¹  Lara Carosso¹  Nicoletta Cadoni¹  Francesca Frau¹  Luigi Piazzi²  Elena Desiderà³  Federica Poli³  Paolo Guidetti⁴  Alice Oprandi⁵  Annalisa Azzola⁵  Carla Morri⁶  Carlo Nike Bianchi⁶  Monica Montefalcone⁷ 

[1] Capo Carbonara Marine Protected Area, Cagliari, Italy;Department of Chemical, Physical, Mathematical and Natural Sciences, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy;Department of Integrative Marine Ecology (EMI), Genoa Marine Centre (GMC), Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn–National Institute of Marine Biology, Ecology and Biotechnology, Genoa, Italy;Department of Integrative Marine Ecology (EMI), Genoa Marine Centre (GMC), Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn–National Institute of Marine Biology, Ecology and Biotechnology, Genoa, Italy;National Research Council, Institute for the Study of Anthropic Impact and Sustainability in the Marine Environment (CNR-IAS), Genoa, Italy;Seascape Ecology Laboratory (SEL), Distav, Department of Earth, Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Genoa, Genova, Italy;Seascape Ecology Laboratory (SEL), Distav, Department of Earth, Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Genoa, Genova, Italy;Department of Integrative Marine Ecology (EMI), Genoa Marine Centre (GMC), Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn–National Institute of Marine Biology, Ecology and Biotechnology, Genoa, Italy;Seascape Ecology Laboratory (SEL), Distav, Department of Earth, Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Genoa, Genova, Italy;National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC), Palermo, Italy;

关键词: water quality;    habitat quality;    marine biotic indices;    water framework directive;    Marine Strategy Framework Directive;    Mediterranean Sea;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fmars.2023.1111592

 received in 2022-11-29, accepted in 2023-03-06,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

In the last decades, climate change and human pressures have increasingly and dramatically impacted the ocean worldwide, calling for urgent actions to safeguard coastal marine ecosystems. The European Commission, in particular, has set ambitious targets for member states with two major directives, the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), both designed to protect the marine environment in EU waters. Diverse biotic indices have accordingly been developed to assess water and habitat quality. The WFD adopts four Biological Quality Elements (BQEs), whereas the MSFD recommends a set of eleven qualitative descriptors. The borderline between water quality and habitat quality is hard to trace and so far most assessments have involved the use of a few indices and were mainly related to a single BQE or qualitative descriptor. In this study, thanks to the availability of a large dataset encompassing a wide array of descriptors, we compared the performance of 11 biotic indices relative to three habitats/biotic components (reefs, seagrass, and fish) of the Marine Protected Area (MPA) of Capo Carbonara (SE Sardinia, Italy). The aim was to assess whether the indices were consistent in defining the environmental status in the MPA investigated. We used the graphical approach RESQUE (REsilience and QUality of Ecosystem), which enabled us to obtain a single and comprehensive measure of the status of the environment by integrating several metrics. This approach was applied here to different habitats for the first time. All indices were consistent with each other in confirming the good status of Capo Carbonara MPA. The use of RESQUE provided insights to interpret the differences between water quality, defined according to the WFD, and habitat quality, defined according to the MSFD. Differences between the two EU directives, in terms of either requirements or goals, have long been discussed but the present study highlights for the first time that they are congruent in their assessment of the environmental status of marine ecosystems.

【 授权许可】

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Copyright © 2023 Oprandi, Atzori, Azzola, Bianchi, Cadoni, Carosso, Desiderà, Frau, Garcia Gutiérrez, Guidetti, Morri, Piazzi, Poli and Montefalcone