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Benthic habitat quality assessment based on biological indices in Xiaoqing River estuary and its adjacent sea of Laizhou Bay, China

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Abstract

Based on the macrofauna data (2008-2011) in Xiaoqing River estuary and its adjacent sea, Laizhou Bay of Bohai Sea, China, the AZTI Marine Biotic Index (AMBI) and Multivariate AMBI (M-AMBI) were used for benthic habitat quality (BHQ) assessment. Results showed that BHQ presented an obvious trend of improvement along the direction of stream channel and river mouth, and in the coastal areas. AMBI and M-AMBI were significantly related to environmental pressure gradient data. Therefore, the two indices can well indicate BHQ in the studied area. However, there were significant differences between results of the two indices. In the cases of low taxa number and high abundance of single species, AMBI might overestimate BHQ. We thus adjusted its thresholds to solve this problem. And M-AMBI might overestimate BHQ when benthic assemblage was dominated by the opportunistic species. Then we could raise the weight of AMBI in the calculation of M-AMBI to handle the problem.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the NSFC-Shandong Joint Fund for Marine Science Research Centers (Grant No. U1406404) and the National Marine Public Welfare Research Project of China (Grant No. 201405007). We’re very grateful to Professor Zishan YU and his group members from College of Marine Life Science, Ocean University of China for the quantitative analysis on macrobenthos in the Xiaoqing River estuary. Thanks for Mr. Angél Borja of Spain AZTI-Tecnalia center to identify the EGs of macrobenthos.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Marine Environment and Ecology, Ministry of Education, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, 266100, P. R. China

    Xianxiang Luo, Song Lin, Jiayu Shen, Yuqing Fan & Longjun Zhang

  2. North China Sea Branch of the State Oceanic Administration, Qingdao, 266033, P. R. China

    Jianqiang Yang

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  1. Xianxiang Luo
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  2. Song Lin
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Correspondence to Xianxiang Luo.

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Luo, X., Lin, S., Yang, J. et al. Benthic habitat quality assessment based on biological indices in Xiaoqing River estuary and its adjacent sea of Laizhou Bay, China. J. Ocean Univ. China 16, 537–546 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11802-017-3038-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11802-017-3038-9

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