PMID- 33676130 OWN - NLM STAT- MEDLINE DCOM- 20210330 LR - 20210330 IS - 1095-8630 (Electronic) IS - 0301-4797 (Linking) VI - 286 DP - 2021 May 15 TI - Ecological quality assessement of marinas: An integrative approach combining biological and environmental data. PG - 112237 LID - S0301-4797(21)00299-1 [pii] LID - 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.112237 [doi] AB - The importance of marinas as infrastructures for recreational boating is increasing substantially. However, information on their soft-bottom benthic communities, a key tool for managing programmes, is still scarce. We combined environment features with macro- and meiofaunal soft-bottom community information for assessing the ecological status of marinas with an integrative approach. To address this issue, we focused on eight marinas of the Southern Iberian Peninsula. Macro- and meiofauna data revealed high benthic heterogeneity at a spatial scale. The environmental variables which correlated best with macrofauna were mainly phosphorus, granulometry, and total organic carbon, and secondarily important variables were faecal coliforms, the biocide Irgarol, and heavy metals; total hydrocarbon concentration was also significant for meiofauna. Annelida was the dominant phylum in terms of number of species (37%) and abundance (66%) and were better descriptors of the environmental conditions than Arthropoda and Mollusca. Although identification to the species level is desirable and mandatory for assessing biological pollution, significant differences among marinas and correlations between fauna and abiotic variables were already detected at the level of family and order. This implies that biota assessment at higher levels may still be useful in monitoring programmes limited by time and budget constraints. The major novelty of this study lies in the development of an integrative assessment method based on the following selected ecological indicators: Marinas Environmental Pollution Index (MEPI), Biocontamination Index (BCI), macrofaunal biotic indices (AMBI, M-AMBI, BENTIX, MEDOCC and BENFES), macrofaunal taxa richness and Shannon-Wiener's diversity, and nematode:copepod index. This approach was able to discriminate marinas of the Southern Iberian Peninsula based on their ecological status, which ranged from poor to good. The method can be useful to design standards for assigning "sustainable quality seals" to those marinas with better values of ecological indicators. CI - Copyright (c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. FAU - Guerra-Garcia, Jose M AU - Guerra-Garcia JM AD - Laboratorio de Biologia Marina, Departamento de Zoologia, Facultad de Biologia, Universidad de Sevilla, Avenida Reina Mercedes 6, 41012, Seville, Spain. Electronic address: jmguerra@us.es. FAU - Navarro-Barranco, Carlos AU - Navarro-Barranco C AD - Laboratorio de Biologia Marina, Departamento de Zoologia, Facultad de Biologia, Universidad de Sevilla, Avenida Reina Mercedes 6, 41012, Seville, Spain. FAU - Ros, Macarena AU - Ros M AD - Laboratorio de Biologia Marina, Departamento de Zoologia, Facultad de Biologia, Universidad de Sevilla, Avenida Reina Mercedes 6, 41012, Seville, Spain. FAU - Sedano, Francisco AU - Sedano F AD - Laboratorio de Biologia Marina, Departamento de Zoologia, Facultad de Biologia, Universidad de Sevilla, Avenida Reina Mercedes 6, 41012, Seville, Spain. FAU - Espinar, Rafael AU - Espinar R AD - Laboratorio de Biologia Marina, Departamento de Zoologia, Facultad de Biologia, Universidad de Sevilla, Avenida Reina Mercedes 6, 41012, Seville, Spain. FAU - Fernandez-Romero, Alejandro AU - Fernandez-Romero A AD - Laboratorio de Biologia Marina, Departamento de Zoologia, Facultad de Biologia, Universidad de Sevilla, Avenida Reina Mercedes 6, 41012, Seville, Spain. FAU - Martinez-Laiz, Gemma AU - Martinez-Laiz G AD - Laboratorio de Biologia Marina, Departamento de Zoologia, Facultad de Biologia, Universidad de Sevilla, Avenida Reina Mercedes 6, 41012, Seville, Spain. FAU - Cuesta, Jose A AU - Cuesta JA AD - Instituto de Ciencias Marinas de Andalucia (CSIC), Avda. Republica Saharaui, 2, 11519, Puerto Real, Cadiz, Spain. FAU - Giraldez, Inmaculada AU - Giraldez I AD - Dpto. Quimica "Prof. J.C. Vilchez Martin", Facultad de Ciencias Experimentales Research Center in Technology of Products and Chemical Processes, Pro(2)TecS Universidad de Huelva, Avda. Fuerzas Armadas, S/n, 21071, Huelva, Spain. FAU - Morales, Emilio AU - Morales E AD - Dpto. Quimica "Prof. J.C. Vilchez Martin", Facultad de Ciencias Experimentales Research Center in Technology of Products and Chemical Processes, Pro(2)TecS Universidad de Huelva, Avda. Fuerzas Armadas, S/n, 21071, Huelva, Spain. FAU - Florido, Marta AU - Florido M AD - Laboratorio de Biologia Marina, Departamento de Zoologia, Facultad de Biologia, Universidad de Sevilla, Avenida Reina Mercedes 6, 41012, Seville, Spain. FAU - Moreira, Juan AU - Moreira J AD - Departamento de Biologia (Unidad de Zoologia) & Centro de Investigacion en Biodiversidad y Cambio Global (CIBC-UAM), Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain. LA - eng PT - Journal Article DEP - 20210303 PL - England TA - J Environ Manage JT - Journal of environmental management JID - 0401664 RN - 0 (Metals, Heavy) SB - IM MH - Animals MH - Biodiversity MH - Biota MH - *Ecosystem MH - Environmental Monitoring MH - Invertebrates MH - *Metals, Heavy/analysis OTO - NOTNLM OT - Ecological assessment OT - Macrofauna OT - Marinas OT - Meiofauna OT - Soft bottoms OT - Taxonomic resolution EDAT- 2021/03/07 06:00 MHDA- 2021/03/31 06:00 CRDT- 2021/03/06 20:14 PHST- 2020/11/05 00:00 [received] PHST- 2021/02/18 00:00 [revised] PHST- 2021/02/18 00:00 [accepted] PHST- 2021/03/07 06:00 [pubmed] PHST- 2021/03/31 06:00 [medline] PHST- 2021/03/06 20:14 [entrez] AID - S0301-4797(21)00299-1 [pii] AID - 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.112237 [doi] PST - ppublish SO - J Environ Manage. 2021 May 15;286:112237. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.112237. Epub 2021 Mar 3.