Preprint volume - SIBM

Pre-print Volume - Oral presentations
Topic 1: BIODIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION SCIENCE: CONTRIBUTING TO MANAGEMENT
A. SFRISO, C. FACCA
Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Venice, Calle Larga, S. Marta, 2137, Venice, Italy.
sfrisoad@unive.it
MACROPHYTES AS BIOLOGICAL ELEMENT FOR THE ASSESSMENT
AND MANAGEMENT OF TRANSITIONAL WATER SYSTEMS
IN THE MEDITERRANEAN ECOREGION
L’ELEMENTO BIOLOGICO MACROFITE PER LA VALUTAZIONE
E LA GESTIONE DEGLI AMBIENTI DI TRANSIZIONE
NELL’ECOREGIONE MEDITERRANEA
Abstract – Macrophytes (macroalgae and angiosperms) are one of the biological quality elements (BQE)
proposed by the European Water Framework Directive (WFD, 2000/60/EC) to assess the ecological status
of coastal waters and transitional systems. Here the application of the available indices (MaQI, Italy and
EEI, Greece) set up to attempt to the WFD requirements for the Mediterranean Ecoregion are presented
and applied to 5 Venice Lagoon areas of different ecological status. Indices are based on a different
rationale but whereas MaQI can be used also in the presence of a single taxon with a negligible biomass
coverage, EEI requires a coverage >30%.
Key-words: Phytobenthos, aquatic plants, environmental monitoring, MaQI, EEI, Venice Lagoon.
Introduction – The first studies that related macrophytes to some environment
pollution events go back to the 1970s. Phytosociological studies and the
Rhodophyceae/Phaeophyceae ratio (R/P) were the most interesting application of
macrophyte vegetation in the coastal waters of Trieste, Marsiglia and in some Sardinia
and Sicilia areas but only in the 2000s, under the WFD promotion, the first well
structured phytobenthic indices were proposed (Giaccone & Catra, 2004).
In 2001, some Greek researchers proposed the application of the Ecological Evaluation
Index (EEI) based on the per cent coverage and macrophyte distinction in two
functional groups: the late successional (ESG I) and the opportunistic (ESG II) species
(Orfanidis et al., 2001, 2003). The index is applied both to coastal and transitional
waters and now it is also accepted by Cipro, Slovenia and Croatia. In Italy, since the
2002 (Sfriso et al., 2002), a strong relationship between the Rhodophyta/Chlorophyta
ratio (R/C) and the environment ecological status was recorded and this index was
employed for the assessment of both coastal waters and transitional systems.
Concurrently, for transitional systems, a more precise methodology: the Macrophyte
Quality Index (MaQI), both in an expert (E-MaQI) and rapid (R-MaQI) version was set
up (Sfriso et al., 2007, 2009). In 2009 MaQI was accepted by Italy for the national
transitional water assessment.
At present an intercalibration exercise between the Mediterranean Geographycal
Intercalibration Groups (Med-GIG) of each Mediterranean Member State is occurring
by applying the national method of Greece (EEI) and the national method of Italy
(MaQI).
In this paper an example of their application in stations of different ecological status
sampled in Venice Lagoon in 2008 is presented.
Materials and methods – Fig. 1 shows the central part of the Venice Lagoon and the 5
sampling sites. Each station has a ray of 15-20 m and it includes both soft and hard
41 st S.I.B.M. CONGRESS Rapallo (GE), 7-11 June 2010
74