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Introduction
Developing health indicators of coastal benthos
communities
Numerous
research programmes on marine benthos conducted throughout the world
have produced substantial datasets containing synoptic information
on the abundance and distribution of the biota, environmental conditions
and contaminates levels.
By combining them into a global data set and subjecting it to critical
analyses that seeks to determine relationships between the benthos
and environmental conditions, specific environmental variables may
be identified that can serve as simple, yet robust indicators of
high versus low impacts of anthropogenic and/or natural sources
of stress (e.g., due to organic over-enrichment or sediment contamination)
on a regional and global basis, to be used in environmental monitoring
programs in different parts of the world.
Objectives
The
study group was started in December 1999 with the objectives to:
| 1)
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Collate and synthesize data on marine benthos and environmental
conditions of selected coastal areas and investigate patterns
in the distribution and abundance of biota in relation to environmental
characteristics;
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| 2)
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Develop recommendations for a subset of specific indicators
that are sensitive and reliable in their ability to detect environmental
stress of benthic communities, and in addition are easy to use
and broadly applicable in different parts of the world.
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| 3) |
Demonstrate the effectiveness of these indicators through application
in test data sets from selected coastal regions of the world;
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| 4)
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Promote the use of these indicators to the broad user community
through disseminating results in reports, publications, symposia,
web sites, or other effective forums.
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Outputs
The
expected outputs over the next few years are:
| 1)
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A series of indicators such as geo-chemical markers, which reflects
biological conditions, that is easy to use and broadly applicable
in detecting stress of benthic communities;
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| 2)
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Web-site
containing:
Database
with data on marine benthos and environmental conditions
from selected coastal areas of the world;
Guidelines
and recommendations on use of indicators in monitoring programs;
Guidelines
on performing statistical analyses of specific monitoring
data;
Reference
material and standards for comparing and interpreting results.
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| 3) |
Presentation of results at major international conferences and
workshops, in technical reports and publication of results in
scientific and popular journals.
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More on IOC's
efforts on developing biological indicators. |
