Proceedings of the Second Mediterranean Symposium on Marine

RAPID ASSESSMENT OF THE ECOLOGICAL STATUS
OF A GREEK COASTAL AREA BASED ON PHYTOBENTHOS:
PRELIMINARY RESULTS.
Maria SALOMIDI, Maria Antonietta - PANCUCCI-PAPADOPOULOU, Georges-Angelos ,
HATIRIS and Panayotis PANAYOTIDIS
National Centre for Marine Research, P.O. Box 712, 19013 Anavyssos, Attica.
e-mail : msal@ncmr.gr
ABSTRACT
The need to develop rapid bio-assessment techniques for assessing <strong>the</strong> ecological
quality <strong>of</strong> coastal waters is emphasized by both scientists and policy makers. In this study
non-destructive sampling was performed on macrophytobenthic populations <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>
upper infralittoral zone at five sites in Rhodes Island (Aegean Sea, Greece), from <strong>the</strong> busy
port <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> town <strong>of</strong> Rhodes to a recreational beach in Ladikon bay. All sites present
various forms and degrees <strong>of</strong> anthropogenic disturbance. Photographic sampling was
performed and <strong>the</strong> Ecological Evaluation Index was applied on <strong>the</strong> quantified visual data
to assess <strong>the</strong> ecological status (in terms <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> WFD) <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> study area. The first results
classified <strong>the</strong> five sites in three different Ecological Status Categories, ranging from Low
at <strong>the</strong> Port <strong>of</strong> Rhodes to High at <strong>the</strong> distant Ladikon Bay. All intermediate stations were
classified as Good. Fur<strong>the</strong>r studies in terms <strong>of</strong> seasonality are necessary in order to
confirm <strong>the</strong>se results.
KEY WORDS: phytobenthos, ecological evaluation, rapid assessment, visual sampling
INTRODUCTION
Developing rapid bio-assessment techniques is becoming a major common goal in <strong>the</strong>
field <strong>of</strong> marine ecology for several scientific and management purposes (Salomidi,
2003). Fur<strong>the</strong>rmore, <strong>the</strong> European Water Policy, as expressed in <strong>the</strong> Water Framework
Directive (EEC, 2000), is prompting for an immediate quality classification <strong>of</strong> all
European coastal waters. In this concept, we present here <strong>the</strong> appliance <strong>of</strong> a newly
introduced Ecological Evaluation Index on marine macrophytobenthic photographic
samples. Although <strong>the</strong> EEI is already known to apply well on tangible data (Orfanidis
et al., 2001), this is one <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> first attempts to test whe<strong>the</strong>r its combination with a visual
sampling method could provide us with a rapid assessment tool.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Visual sampling
Sampling was performed by free diving on <strong>the</strong> upper infralittoral zone (0-50 cm). This
zone is shown to respond well to <strong>the</strong> various anthropogenic impacts as it is directly
subjected to pressures related to coastal activities. Moreover, <strong>the</strong> requirement <strong>of</strong> SCUBA
ACTES DU DEUXIEME SYMPOSIUM MEDITERRANEEN SUR LA VEGETATION MARINE (ATHENES, 12-13 DECEMBRE 2003)
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