Publication Date:
2021-05-19
Description:
This study aimed to assess ecological quality status of hard substratum
macroinvertebrates communities of the Caspian Sea with three ecological indices and
their relationship with environmental factors. For this purpose, benthic communities of
the Caspian Sea basin were studied seasonally during 2014 in 8 sampling sites.
Temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, pH, nitrate, nitrite, silicate and phosphate were
measured as environmental factors. The benthic classification indices AMBI (AZTI
Marine Biotic Index), M-AMBI (Multivariate AMBI) and BENTIX (BENthic IndeX)
were applied to assess the ecological status of the studied area. Results showed low
dissimilarity based on species composition and abundance among seasons, while all
seasons discriminated clearly based on environmental factors. In addition, AMBI index
was more successful to assess ecological health of hard substratum in the Caspian Sea
basin than M-AMBI and BENTIX. Furthermore, AMBI showed high sensitivity to
environmental variation. Results indicated that temperature, nitrate, silicate, phosphate
and nitrite were the most important factors in the composition and abundance
fluctuation of hard substratum macroinvertebrates communities, respectively
Description:
Published
Keywords:
Benthic health
;
AMBI
;
M-AMBI
;
BENTIX
;
Environmental factors
;
Macrobenthic
Repository Name:
AquaDocs
Type:
Journal Contribution
,
Refereed
Format:
pp.641-656
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