Riassunto:
Experience demonstrates that none of the available measures for biological and ecological effects of pollution could be considered ideal. The use of a single approach does not seem appropriate due to the complexity inherent in assessing the environmental quality of a system. Rather, this should be evaluated by combining a set of indicators providing complementary information. A decision key was built with the aim of helping managers and authorities of coastal areas in selecting the most suitable ecological indicators, taking into account the type of disturbance and the data available. It includes numerous indicators, namely based on benthic invertebrate fauna information. This is because in the case of coastal and transitional water ecosystems there is a clear preference for benthic communities, which integrate environmental conditions and changes in a very effective way if we want to monitor long-term responses and site-specific impacts. The decision system development was based not only on theoretical approaches, but also on results from its experimental application using data bases corresponding to different geographical areas.Recommendations are provided with regard to the most adequate application of indicators, as for example, in what situations it is not advisable to use some of them, depending on the type of disturbance or the level of taxonomic identification of the organisms. Finally, it is shown, with examples, how to combine indicators to characterise systems ecological quality status.
Informazioni sull?autore:
Joao Carlos Marques, has been a professor in the Department of Zoology at the IMAR - Institute of Marine Research, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of Coimbra, Portugal, since 2004. He is also the winner of the Prize of Scientific Excellence, Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, (2005). His research specialties are Biological and Ecological processes in aquatic ecosystems; Environmental quality assessment and management; Ecological modeling and his current research involves Communities structure and functioning; Populations biology, dynamics, and production; Pollution and environmental quality assessment; Ecological Indicators; and Network analysis. He is a member of the Editorial Board of Ecological Modelling, Associate Editor of Journal of Crustacean Biology; Executive Editor of Acta Oecologica, Associate Editor of The Scientific World, and a member of the Editorial Board of International Journal of Ecodynamics. He has authored or co-authored numerous books, book chapters, and scientific papers in his field and is a member of the Portuguese Biologists Association; the Portuguese Natural Sciences Society; the Portuguese Centre of Underwater Activities; the Portuguese Ecological Society; the Crustacean Society; the European Association of Marine Sciences and Techniques (EAMST); the International Society for Ecological Modelling (ISEM); the International Ecological Engineering Society (IEES); and the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) Fuensanta Salas is currently with the Department of Ecology and Hydrology, Faculty of Biology, University of Murcia, Spain where her research interests include the study of marine and estuarial ecosystems, ecological indicators, and environmental management. From 2002 to 2004 she was a researcher at the IMAR (Instituto do Mar), at the Universidade de Coimbra. She has participated in numerous scientific projects and authored or co-authored various works on the development validation of ecological indicators in scientific journals and book chapters. Since 2006, Joana Patricio has been a Tenured Associate Professor with IMAR - Institute of Marine Research, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of Coimbra, Portugal. Professor Patricio has participated in many projects and written or co-written papers, book chapters, and conference presentations in the field of coastal and marine ecological modeling. Joao Neto and Heliana Lilita are also with the IMAR - Institute of Marine Research, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, at the University of Coimbra, Portugal.
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