Paradox of estuarine quality: benthic indicators and indices, consensus or debate for the future
In: Marine Pollution Bulletin. Macmillan: London. ISSN 0025-326X; e-ISSN 1879-3363, more
Also appears in:Devlin, M.; Best, M.; Haynes, D. (Ed.) (2007). Implementation of the Water Framework Directive in European marine waters. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 55(Spec. Issue 1-6). Elsevier: Amsterdam. 297 pp., more
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| Keywords |
Aquatic communities > Benthos
Aquatic communities > Benthos > Zoobenthos
Coastal zone
Indicators
Pollution > Water pollution > Brackishwater pollution
Water bodies > Coastal waters > Coastal landforms > Coastal inlets > Estuaries
Water masses
ANE, France, Seine Estuary [Marine Regions]
Marine/Coastal |
| Author keywords |
European Water Framework Directive (WFD); benthic index; benthicindicators; estuaries; Seine estuary; transitional water bodies |
| Abstract |
The European Water Framework Directive will have instituted the concept of Ecological Quality Status (EQS) as a way to assess the biological quality of water masses. The EQS will be based mainly upon the composition of the different biological compartments in the ecosystem specially the benthos as compared to certain reference sites. Such management tools are already well established for freshwater (i.e. biotic indices), but not for coastal and estuarine (i.e. transitional) waters. In the framework of the Seine-Aval programme a workshop on benthic indicators was organized at Wimereux (France) in June 2005. The aim of this workshop and this paper is (1) to present the experiences of the Seine Aval researchers, and the French scientific approaches to benthic indicators, with those international experiences and approaches that have been published or are under development; and (2) to examine the existing benthic tools and their possible use in the characterization of the state of estuarine ecosystems. The debate during the workshop and the numerous recently published on the WFD are discussed in term of the implementation of the WFD in transitional water bodies using benthic indicators and indices. Some proposals for the future underline the needs to re-examine and adapt the different index thresholds, to take into account physical disturbances, to inventory the existing conditions vs reference conditions and to be as pragmatic as possible in using the WFD in transitional waters. |
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