The efficacy of benthic indices to evaluate the ecological quality and urbanization effects on sandy beach ecosystems

Autor(es)

Checon, Helio H. ; Corte, Guilherme N. ; Esmaeili, Yasmina Shah ; Muniz, Pablo ; Turra, Alexander

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: Science of The Total Environment; v. 856, p. 11-pg., 2023-01-15.

Resumo

Benthic indices have been widely used across different coastal ecosystems to assess ecological quality and detect anthropic impacts, but very few studies investigated their effectiveness on sandy beaches. Here, we evaluated and compared the efficacy of 12 assemblage-based benthic indices in assessing ecological quality in beaches, across a gradient of anthropic pressure and natural variability in 90 sandy beach sites. Overall, when sandy beaches were considered collectively, ben-thic indices had a poor performance in identifying decreases in ecological quality with increasing urbanization. However, when each morphodynamic type was evaluated separately, a few indices, especially those that were calibrated by refer-ence conditions (i.e., M-AMBI, BAT, and BEQI-2), showed promising results for dissipative, and to a lesser extent, interme-diate beaches. For reflective beaches, indices performed poorly, likely a reflection of the stronger natural disturbance these beaches are subjected to. Among functional indices, richness was found to be lower in urbanized beaches, but only in dis-sipative ones. Overall, our results show that benthic indices have the potential to be incorporated in sandy beach manage-ment and monitoring programs, especially for dissipative and intermediate beaches. For reflective beaches, given the early stage of studies with benthic indices in beaches, more research is needed to corroborate the observed patterns. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 18/19776-2 - Promovendo o planejamento espacial e conservação de praias por meio de uma abordagem ecossistêmica
• Beneficiário: Alexander Turra
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Programa BIOTA - Regular
• Processo FAPESP: 18/05099-9 - Comunidades de peixes da zona de surfe de praias arenosas: investigando os mitos, explorando diferentes metodologias e fornecendo conhecimento para estratégias de manejo
• Beneficiário: Yasmina Michel Liliane Shah Esmaeili
• Modalidade de apoio: Bolsas no Brasil - Doutorado
• Processo FAPESP: 18/22036-0 - Avaliação do potencial de diferentes índices bentônicos para determiner a integridade ecólogica de praias arenosas: subsídios para práticas de manejo e monitoramento
• Beneficiário: Hélio Hermínio Checon
• Modalidade de apoio: Bolsas no Brasil - Pós-Doutorado
• Processo FAPESP: 17/17071-9 - Preservando praias arenosas: biodiversidade, bens e serviços e impactos em um ecossistema negligenciado
• Beneficiário: Guilherme Nascimento Corte
• Modalidade de apoio: Bolsas no Brasil - Pós-Doutorado
• Processo FAPESP: 15/03804-9 - Governança ambiental da macrometrópole paulista face à variabilidade climática
• Beneficiário: Pedro Roberto Jacobi
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Programa de Pesquisa sobre Mudanças Climáticas Globais - Temático