Benthic biotic index useful to assess the ecological quality status of semi-enclosed Jinhae Bay, Korea

Abstract

There are many benthic biotic indices indicating the ecological quality status of benthic ecosystems, e.g. B-IBI and AMBI. Here we used the benthic pollution index (BPI) which was calculated based on the relative composition of 4 functional groups including three feeding guilds adapted from ITI and one opportunistic species group, and it was applied to assess the ecological quality status of Jinhae Bay, which are known as one of Marine Special Management Areas of Korea. We selected a coastal bay, Deukrang Bay as a reference benthic ecosystem to assess the target bay because the bay has not been disturbed by human activities and assigned as a fisheries protection area in Korea. From the benthic fauna data of Deukrang Bay, the criteria for healthy status of each benthic biotic index was decided by assuming that the half of the sampling sites was under healthy condition. The critique value for BPI was determined as 60. We applied three benthic biotic indices such as BPI, AMBI, and B-IBI to the macrobenthic fauna data from Jinhae Bay. Both BPI and BIBI relatively well reflected the benthic disturbance gradients in the coastal bay. BPI was considered as a useful tool to assess the health condition of macrobenthic communities in coastal areas of Korea even though it was based on an incomplete database on the ecological functions of macrobenthic fauna.ional groups including three feeding guilds adapted from ITI and one opportunistic species group, and it was applied to assess the ecological quality status of Jinhae Bay, which are known as one of Marine Special Management Areas of Korea. We selected a coastal bay, Deukrang Bay as a reference benthic ecosystem to assess the target bay because the bay has not been disturbed by human activities and assigned as a fisheries protection area in Korea. From the benthic fauna data of Deukrang Bay, the criteria for healthy status of each benthic biotic index was decided by assuming that the ha