Ecological indices : a biometric approach for assessing eutrophication levels in the marine environment

摘要: Abstract The efficiency of 12 ecological indices expressing species diversity, abundance, evenness, dominance and biomass phytoplankton to describe trophic levels in coastal marine ecosystems the Eastern Mediterranean was assessed. data were derived from three reference sets characterising different levels: (a) inshore Saronikos Gulf waters eutrophication; (b) offshore representing mesotrophic conditions; (c) oligotrophic Island Rhodes, Aegean Sea. Some commonly used such as Simpson's, Shannon's Margalef's seemed be unsuitable for identifying eutrophic trends. On other hand, Menhinick's index, Kothe's Species Evenness, Number Total Individuals found effective distinguishing oligotrophic, waters, most efficient being indices. These propose a classification scheme Mediterranean. experimental approach described present work can water characterization any waterbody, provided there are available setting up standard datasets that define conditions.