Indicative value of benthic foraminifera for biomonitoring: Assignment to ecological groups of sensitivity to total organic carbon of species from European intertidal areas and transitional waters

Vincent M.P. Bouchet, Fabrizio Frontalini, Fabio Francescangeli, Pierre Guy Sauriau, Emmanuelle Geslin, Maria Virginia Alves Martins, Ahuva Almogi-Labin, Simona Avnaim-Katav, Letizia Di Bella, Alejandro Cearreta, Rodolfo Coccioni, Ashleigh Costelloe, Margarita D. Dimiza, Luciana Ferraro, Kristin Haynert, Michael Martínez-Colón, Romana Melis, Magali Schweizer, Maria V. Triantaphyllou, Akira TsujimotoBrent Wilson, Eric Armynot du Châtelet

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

40 Scopus citations

Abstract

This work contributes to the ongoing work aiming at confirming benthic foraminifera as a biological quality element. In this study, benthic foraminifera from intertidal and transitional waters from the English Channel/European Atlantic coast and the Mediterranean Sea were assigned to five ecological groups using the weighted-averaging optimum with respect to TOC of each species. It was however not possible to assign typical salt marsh species due to the presence of labile and refractory organic matter that hampers TOC characterization. Tests of this study species' lists with Foram-AMBI on two independent datasets showed a significant correlation between Foram-AMBI and TOC, confirming the strong relation between foraminifera and TOC. For one of the validation datasets, associated macrofaunal data were available and a significant correlation was found between the foraminiferal Foram-AMBI and the macrofaunal AMBI. The here proposed lists should be further tested with sensitivity-based indices in different European regional settings.

Original languageEnglish
Article number112071
JournalMarine Pollution Bulletin
Volume164
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2021
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier Ltd

Keywords

  • Benthic foraminifera
  • English Channel
  • Environmental biomonitoring
  • European Atlantic coasts
  • Foram-AMBI
  • Mediterranean Sea
  • Total organic carbon
  • Transitional environments

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Indicative value of benthic foraminifera for biomonitoring: Assignment to ecological groups of sensitivity to total organic carbon of species from European intertidal areas and transitional waters'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this