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Ecological status assessment and non-indigenous species in industrial and fishing harbours of the Gulf of Gabès (central Mediterranean Sea)

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Abstract

Port Biological Baseline Surveys (PBBS) are standardized surveys of the indigenous and non-indigenous marine biodiversity within harbour activities. They provide a baseline for monitoring changes in the structure and function of harbour communities. This study conducted in 12 fishing and industrial harbours from January to December 2018 was the first initiative of a Port Baseline Survey aimed to assess the impact of biological invasions in harbours of the Gulf of Gabès (GG), Tunisia. A total of 174 macrobenthos species were recorded, belonging to eight phyla, with a dominance of crustaceans (32%), molluscs (31%) and polychaetes (20%). Among these species, 57 were non-indigenous species (NIS) for Tunisian waters, while 27 species were recorded for the first time in GG harbours, and three decapods (Dyspanopeus sayi, Hippolyte prideauxiana and Pilumnus minutus) and one amphipod (Hamimaera hamigera) were newly recorded from Tunisian waters. Two main categories of harbours are distinguished according to their macrobenthic communities and environmental conditions. The industrial harbours yield higher richness and abundance of NIS than the fishing harbours. The ALEX metric is used to evaluate the biological invasion status of the Gulf of Gabès harbours and shows that their status ranges from unaffected in fishing harbours to extremely affected in industrial harbours. Three biotic indices (AMBI, BO2A and BENTIX) are applied to assess the ecological status of harbours, which varies from moderate to good. ALEX and the other biotic indices are significantly correlated with harbour characteristics, maritime traffic and edaphic factors (organic matter and chemical contamination). The present study provides a data baseline for the implementation of environmental policies and management plans in the future.

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All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the fishermen and management authorities of fishing and industrial harbours of the Gulf of Gabès for their support during the sampling campaigns, as well as the macrobenthic experts who confirmed the identification of certain species, Dr. M. Serbaji for drafting Fig. 1 and M. Carpenter for the English revision. Finally, they wish to thank the editor and the reviewers of Environmental Science and Pollution Research for their useful comments and suggestions during the revision process of this paper.

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This work was undertaken within the framework of research activities in the Marine Biodiversity and Environment laboratory, Faculty of Sciences of Sfax, Tunisia.

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  1. Laboratoire de Biodiversité Marine et Environnement, Faculté des Sciences de Sfax, Université de Sfax, BP, 1171, 3038, Sfax, Tunisie

    Nawfel Mosbahi & Lassad Neifar

  2. Normandie Univ., UNICAEN, CNRS, UMR 6143 M2C, Laboratoire Morphodynamique Continentale et Côtière, 2-4 Rue des Tilleuls, 14000, Caen, France

    Jean-Philippe Pezy & Jean-Claude Dauvin

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  1. Nawfel Mosbahi
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Contributions

This collaboration work was carried out among all the authors. MN, JC-D and LN contributed to the conception and design of the study. MN wrote the first draft of the manuscript, and JP-P performed some statistical analyses. All authors contributed to manuscript revision, read and approved the submitted version. Dr. M.S.N. Carpenter post-edited the English style and grammar.

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Correspondence to Nawfel Mosbahi.

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Mosbahi, N., Pezy, JP., Neifar, L. et al. Ecological status assessment and non-indigenous species in industrial and fishing harbours of the Gulf of Gabès (central Mediterranean Sea). Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 65278–65299 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-14729-1

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