Proceedings of the Second Mediterranean Symposium on Marine

PRELIMINARY PHYTOBENTHOS BIODIVERSITY STUDY OF MARINE
SITES OF THE GREEK NATURA 2000 NETWORK
Maria PANTAZI 1 , Panayotis PANAYOTIDIS, 2 Barbara Montesanto 1 , Daniel Daneilidis 1 and
Athamassis Economou 1
1 : A<strong>the</strong>ns University, masters in oceanography,15784, Panepistimiopilis,A<strong>the</strong>ns,GREECE
2 : National center <strong>of</strong> Marine Researcher, 19013 Mavro Lithari,A<strong>the</strong>ns,GREECE
ABSTRACT
The implementation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Directive 92/ 43/ EEC indicates <strong>the</strong> enactment <strong>of</strong> a European
network <strong>of</strong> regions (sites) <strong>of</strong> special environmental management, known as “NATURA
2000”. The Greek NATURA 2000 network consists <strong>of</strong> about 300 regions. Most <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>m
present an important marine part.
The statistical analysis was based on phytobenthic data from <strong>the</strong> habitat type “reef” <strong>of</strong> 16
sites. The aim <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> work was <strong>the</strong> hierarchical classification <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> sites on <strong>the</strong> basis <strong>of</strong>
phytobenthos biodiversity. The s<strong>of</strong>tware used was PRIMER 5 and SPSS 11.
The Cluster analysis and <strong>the</strong> Multi Dimensional Scaling (MDS) were performed on a Bray
Curtis Similarity matrix. The dissimilarity <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> sites was checked, according to specific
environmental factors (date, substrate, inclination, water depth, turbidity etc). Information
concerning <strong>the</strong> number <strong>of</strong> species/site was gained by <strong>the</strong> use <strong>of</strong> Rank Correlation.
Simper Analysis showed <strong>the</strong> percentage <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> average dissimilarity/ similarity between
different sites along with <strong>the</strong> species, which was considered responsible for this. Last but
not least, a classification <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> regions was attained, according to <strong>the</strong>ir biodiversity, by
means <strong>of</strong> Diversity Analysis.
ACTES DU DEUXIEME SYMPOSIUM MEDITERRANEEN SUR LA VEGETATION MARINE (ATHENES, 12-13 DECEMBRE 2003)
239