Abstract
With the widespread influence of human activities on marine ecosystems, evaluation of ecological status provides valuable information for conservation initiatives and sustainable development. To this end, many environmental indicators have been developed worldwide and there is a growing need to evaluate their performance by calculating ecological status in a wide range of ecosystems at multiple spatial and temporal scales. This study calculated and contrasted sixteen indicators of ecological status from three methodological categories: abundance measures, diversity parameters and characteristic species. This selection was applied to coastal benthic ecosystems at Sept-Îles (Québec, Canada), an important industrial harbor area in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and related to habitat parameters (organic matter, grain size fractions, and heavy metal concentrations). Nearly all indicators highlighted a generally good ecological status in the study area, where communities presented an unperturbed profile with high taxa and functional diversities and without the dominance of opportunistic taxa. Some correlations with habitat parameters were detected, especially with heavy metals, and bootstrap analyses indicated quite robust results. This study provides valuable information on the application of environmental indicators in Canadian coastal ecosystems, along with insights on their use for environmental assessments.
Highlights
Anthropogenic influences on marine ecosystems occur globally, with possible perturbation of habitats and communities (Halpern et al, 2007, 2019)
As natural and anthropogenic drivers may affect ecosystems concomitantly, it is important to understand how both relate to observed effects (Brown et al, 2014)
The objectives of this study are to (i) compare outcomes of various environmental indicators on benthic ecosystems of the Sept-Îles region and (ii) understand how these indicators relate to habitat parameters for validation and to select appropriate applications
Summary
Anthropogenic influences on marine ecosystems occur globally, with possible perturbation of habitats and communities (Halpern et al, 2007, 2019). As natural and anthropogenic drivers may affect ecosystems concomitantly, it is important to understand how both relate to observed effects (Brown et al, 2014) To tackle these questions, environmental assessments rely on the best available knowledge, acquired through ecological groundwork in ecosystems of interest (such as biodiversity surveys, time series monitoring or experimental studies), and on the communication of results to a wide range of stakeholders (Borja et al, 2012; Borja, 2014; Chapman, 2016; Teixeira et al, 2016). Because such assessments are important foundations for decision makers, it is essential to properly account for the inherent complexity and variability of ecological data
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