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The AZTI Marine Biotic Index (AMBI) requires less geographically-specific calibration than other benthic indices, but has not performed as well in US coastal waters as it has in the European waters for which it was originally developed. Here we examine the extent of improvement in index performance when the Ecological Group (EG) classifications on which AMBI is based are derived using local expertise. Twenty-three US benthic experts developed EG scores for each of three regions in the United States, as well as for the US as a whole. Index performance was then compared using: 1) EG scores specific to a region, 2) national EG scores, 3) national EG scores supplemented with standard international EG scores for taxa which the US experts were not able to make assignments, and 4) standard international EG scores. Performance of each scheme was evaluated by diagnosis of condition at pre-defined good/bad sites, concordance with existing local benthic indices, and independence from natural environmental gradients. The AMBI performed best when using the national EG assignments augmented with standard international EG values. The AMBI using this hybrid EG scheme performed well in differentiating apriori good and bad sites (>80% correct classification rate) and AMBI scores were both concordant and correlated (rp = 0.4 to 0.7) with those of existing local indices. Nearly all of the results suggest that assigning the EG values in the framework of local biogeographic conditions produced a better-performing version of AMBI. The improved index performance, however, was tempered with apparent biases in score distribution. The AMBI, regardless of EG scheme, tended to compress ratings away from the extremes and toward the moderate condition and there was a bias with salinity, where high quality sites received increasingly poorer condition scores with decreasing salinity., JRC.H.1-Water Resources

Human development has degraded Chesapeake Bay's health, resulting in an increase in the extent and severity of hypoxia (≤2 mg O2 l-1). The Bay's hypoxic zones have an adverse effect on both community structure and secondary production of macrobenthos. From 1996 to 2004, the effect of hypoxia on macrobenthic production was assessed in Chesapeake Bay and its three main tributaries (Potomac, Rappahannock, and York Rivers). Each year, in the summer (late July − early September), 25 random samples of the benthic macrofauna were collected from each system, and macrobenthic production in the polyhaline and mesohaline regions was estimated using Edgar's allometric equation. Fluctuations in macrobenthic production were significantly correlated with dissolved oxygen. Macrobenthic production was 90 % lower during hypoxia relative to normoxia. As a result, there was a biomass loss of ~7,320–13,200 metric tons C over an area of 7,720 km2, which is estimated to equate to a 20 % to 35 % displacement of the Bay's macrobenthic productivity during the summer. While higher consumers may benefit from easy access to stressed prey in some areas, the large spatial and temporal extent of seasonal hypoxia limits higher trophic level transfer, via the inhibition of macrobenthic production. Such a massive loss of macrobenthic production would be detrimental to the overall health of the Bay, as it comes at a time when epibenthic and demersal predators have high-energy demands.

Sand shoals provide both a potentially unique habitat resource for marine organisms and a source of sand for the replenishment of eroded beaches. Sand removal may negatively influence marine communities, so understanding how marine fauna utilize habitats at and around shoals would provide much-needed guidance in selecting sites for sand harvest. A 2-year study was conducted on the inner continental shelf of the Middle Atlantic Bight, U.S.A., to compare finfish and invertebrate assemblages at sand shoal and nearby flat-bottom habitats. Multiple sampling modalities were used to sample organisms across a range of sizes, living habits, and life history stages. There was a trend toward greater abundance, species richness, and species diversity in flat-bottom habitats than in shoal habitats, and all of these community measures were generally lower during winter than in spring, summer, or fall. Moreover, species groups, including pelagic finfish, pelagic invertebrates, benthic finfish, and benthic inver...

article i nfo Benthic communities provide secondary production for higher trophic levels, and changes in benthic community structure can be a harbinger for associated food web alterations. Benthic communities can be affected by variations in water quality, with low dissolved oxygen reducing benthic abundance and biomass. We quantified the effects of dissolved oxygen and other environmental factors upon changes in density, biomass, and diversity of the macrobenthic community from long-term data (1996-2004) from the Chesapeake Bay Program's benthic monitoring. Benthic density, biomass, and diversity were significantly and negatively correlated with water depth and positively correlated with the dissolved oxygen level. In an assessment of multiple models using Akaike's Information Criteria, oxygen was the single best predictor of summer benthic infaunal density by depth. Biomass was best predicted by depth, salinity, and dissolved oxygen together. Moreover, oxygen was among the important factors determining Shannon (H') diversity. Benthic diversity in Chesapeake Bay over 2001-2004 was historically low compared to that over the years 1996-2000 and was directly correlated with the severity of hypoxia. Hypoxia leads to mass mortality of benthos, which reduces the overall availability of secondary production to higher trophic levels and can affect overall productivity in Chesapeake Bay. Regions with low dissolved oxygen should be managed to minimize deleterious anthropogenic effects on benthos that may affect higher trophic levels.

To meet the requirements of the Clean Water Act, the States of Maryland and Virginia are using benthic biological criteria for identifying impaired waters in Chesapeake Bay and reporting their overall condition. The Chesapeake Bay benthic index of biotic integrity (B-IBI) is the basis for these biological criteria. Working together with the states and the US Environmental Protection Agency, we developed a method for impairment decisions based on the B-IBI. The impaired waters decision approach combines multiple benthic habitat-dependent indices in a Bay segment (equivalent to water bodies in the European Water Framework Directive) with a statistical test of impairment. The method takes into consideration uncertainty in reference conditions, sampling variability, multiple habitats, and sample size. We applied this method to 1430 probability-based benthic samples in 85 Chesapeake Bay segments. Twenty-two segments were considered impaired for benthic community condition. The final decision for each segment considers benthic condition in combination with key stressors such as dissolved oxygen and toxic contaminants.

In an effort to better portray changing health conditions in Chesapeake Bay and support restoration efforts, a Bay Health Index (BHI) was developed to assess the ecological effects of nutrient and sediment loading on 15 regions of the estuary. Three water quality and three biological measures were combined to formulate the BHI. Water quality measures of chlorophyll-a, dissolved oxygen, and Secchi depth were averaged to create the Water Quality Index (WQI), and biological measures of the phytoplankton and benthic indices of biotic integrity (P-IBI and B-IBI, respectively) and the area of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) were averaged to create the Biotic Index (BI). The WQI and BI were subsequently averaged to give a BHI value representing ecological conditions over the growing season (i.e., March-October). Lower chlorophyll-a concentrations, higher dissolved oxygen concentrations, deeper Secchi depths, higher phytoplankton and benthic indices relative to ecological health-based thresholds, and more extensive SAV area relative to restoration goal areas, characterized the least-impaired regions. The WQI, P-IBI and BHI were significantly correlated with (1) regional river flow (r=-0.64, -0.57 and -0.49, respectively; p0.01), (2) nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and sediment loads (all positively correlated with flow), and (3) the sum of developed and agricultural land use (highest annual r(2)=0.86, 0.71 and 0.68, respectively) in most reporting regions, indicating that the BHI is strongly regulated by nutrient and sediment loads from these land uses. The BHI uses ecological health-based thresholds that give an accurate representation of the health conditions in Chesapeake Bay and was the basis for an annual, publicly released environmental report card that debuted in 2007.

Legislation in US and Europe has been adopted to determine the ecological integrity of estuarine and coastal waters, including, as one of the most relevant elements, the benthic macroinvertebrate communities. It has been recommended that greater emphasis should be placed on evaluating the suitability of existing indices prior to developing new ones. This study compares two widely used measures of ecological integrity, the Benthic Index of Biotic Integrity (B-IBI) developed in USA and the European AZTI's Marine Biotic Index (AMBI) and its multivariate extension, the M-AMBI. Specific objectives were to identify the frequency, magnitude, and nature of differences in assessment of Chesapeake Bay sites as ‘degraded’ or ‘undegraded’ by the indices. A dataset of 275 subtidal samples taken in 2003 from Chesapeake Bay were used in this comparison. Linear regression of B-IBI and AMBI, accounted for 24% of the variability; however, when evaluated by salinity regimes, the explained variability increased in polyhaline (38%), high mesohaline (38%), and low mesohaline (35%) habitats, remained similar in the tidal freshwater (25%), and decreased in oligohaline areas (17%). Using the M-AMBI, the explained variability increased to 43% for linear regression, and 54% for logarithmic regression. By salinity regime, the highest explained variability was found in high mesohaline and low polyhaline areas (53–63%), while the lowest explained variability was in the oligohaline and tidal freshwater areas (6–17%). The total disagreement between methods, in terms of degraded-undegraded classifications, was 28%, with high spatial levels of agreement. Our study suggests that different methodologies in assessing benthic quality can provide similar results even though these methods have been developed within different geographical areas.

We tested whether macrobenthic community condition varies significantly with water depth in a variety of regions of Chesapeake Bay, USA. Benthic community condition was characterized using the Benthic Index of Biotic Integrity (B-IBI) previously developed for the Bay. We applied two water depth thresholds intended to emphasize the ecological importance and/or anthropogenic impacts upon shallow-water regions. The first threshold of 2 m emphasizes restoring and supporting submerged aquatic vegetation while the second threshold of 4 m emphasizes the zone of maximum anthropogenic impact upon natural ecosystem functions. An a priori expectation is that benthic community condition may worsen with increasing depth, specifically in regions (1) where water column stratification at depth results in prolonged low dissolved oxygen levels or (2) where net deposition at depth results in higher levels of hydrophobic, sediment-bound contaminants. Samples collected from a major tributary of Chesapeake Bay, the York River estuary, spanned the entire salinity range from tidal freshwater to polyhaline. We also tested the shallow-water depth thresholds using data from the Virginia Mainstem of Chesapeake Bay and the Southern Branch of the Elizabeth River. These two polyhaline regions are characterized as having the best and worst benthic community condition in Chesapeake Bay. At the scale of the entire tidal York River system, there were no significant differences in benthic community condition with water depth. However, two salinity regions, low mesohaline and polyhaline, had significant depth effects with the shallowest water depth zone significantly different from the other two depth regions. For the low mesohaline region benthic community condition was worse at the shallowest depth and for the polyhaline region the shallowest depth was better comparing the three depth regions. No depth-related differences in the B-IBI were found for the two additional Chesapeake Bay strata, the Virginia Mainstem characterized with the lowest levels of benthic community degradation and for the Southern branch of the Elizabeth River, characterized by the highest levels of benthic community degradation. We conclude that the ecological state of Chesapeake Bay subtidal benthic communities is adequately characterized by randomly sampling all depths without further stratification into shallow and deeper regions.

A benthic index of biotic integrity was developed for use in estuaries of the mid-Atlantic region of the United States (Delaware Bay estuary through Albemarle-Pamlico Sound). The index was developed for the Mid-Atlantic Integrated Assessment Program (MAIA) of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency using procedures similar to those applied previously in Chesapeake Bay and southeastern estuaries, and was based on sampling in July through early October. Data from seven federal and state sampling programs were used to categorize sites as degraded or non-degraded based on dissolved oxygen, sediment contaminant, and sediment toxicity criteria. Various metrics of benthic community structure and function that distinguished between degraded and reference (non-degraded) sites were selected for each of five major habitat types defined by classification analysis of assemblages. Each metric was scored according to thresh- olds established on the distribution of values at reference sites, so that sites with low scoring metrics would be expected to show signs of degradation. For each habitat, metrics that correctly classified at least 50% of the degraded sites in the calibration data set were selected whenever possible to derive the index. The final index integrated the average score of the combination of metrics that performed best according to several criteria. Selected metrics included measures of productivity (abundance), diversity (number of taxa, Shannon-Wiener diversity, percent dominance), species composition and life history (percent abundance of pollution-indicative taxa, percent abundance of pollution-sensitive taxa, percent abundance of Bivalvia, Tanypodinae-Chironomidae abundance ratio), and trophic composition (percent abundance of deep-deposit feeders). The index correctly classified 82% of all sites in an independent data set. Classification efficiencies of sites were higher in the mesohaline and polyhaline habitats (81-92%) than in the oligohaline (71%) and the tidal freshwater (61%). Although application of the index to low salinity habitats should be done with caution, the MAIA index appeared to be quite reliable with a high likelihood of correctly identifying both degraded and non-degraded conditions. The index is expected to be of great utility in regional assessments as a tool for evaluating the integrity of benthic assemblages and tracking their condition over time.

An objective of the Mid-Atlantic Integrated Assessment Program (MAIA) of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is to develop an index for assessing benthic community condition in estuaries of the mid-Atlantic region of the United States (Delaware Bay through Pamlico Sound). To develop such an index, natural unimpaired communities must first be identified and variability related to natural factors accounted for. This study focused on these two objectives; Lnanso et al. (2002) describe the index. Using existing data sets from multiple years, classification analyses of species abundance and discriminant analysis were employed to identify major habitat types in the MAIA region and evaluate the physical characteristics that structure benthic infaunal assemblages. Sampling was restricted to soft bottoms and to the index development period, July through early October. The analyses revealed salinity and sediment composition as major factors structuring infaunal assemblages in mid-Atlantic estuaries. Geographical location was a secondary factor. Nine habitat classes were distinguished as a combination of 6 salinity classes, 2 sediment types, and the separation of North Carolina and Delaware-Chesapeake Bay polyhaline sites. The effect of sediment types on faunal assemblages was restricted to polyhaline sites, which were separated into two sediment groups above and below 90% sand content. Assemblages corresponding to each of these 9 habitats were identified in the context of widely recognized patterns of dominant taxa. Differences between North Carolina and Delaware-Chesapeake Bay polyhaline assemblages were attributed to the relative contributions of species and not to differences in species composition. No zoogeographic discontinuities could be identified. Our results reinforce the findings of recent studies which suggest that, with respect to estuarine benthic assemblages, the boundary between the Virginian and the Carolinian Provinces be moved to a new location south of Pamlico Sound.

The benthic index of biotic integrity (B-IBI) developed for the Chesapeake Bay was statistically verified using simulations and a suite of multivariate statistical techniques. The B-IBI uses a simple scoring system for benthic community metrics to assess benthic community health and to infer environmental quality of benthic habitats in the Bay. Overall, the B-IBI was verified as being sensitive, stable, robust and statistically sound. Classification effectiveness of the B-IBI increased with salinity, from marginal performance for tidal freshwater ecosystems to excellent results for polyhaline areas. The greater classification uncertainty in low salinity habitats may be due to difficulties in reliably identifying naturally unstressed areas or may be due to regional ecotones created by stress gradients. Pollution-indicative species abundance, pollution-sensitive species abundance, and diversity (Shannon's index) were the most important metrics in discriminating between degraded and non-degraded conditions in the majority of the habitats. Single metrics often performed as well as the multi-metric B-IBI in correctly classifying the relative quality of sites. However, the redundancy in the multi-metric B-IBI provided a stable 'weight of evidence' system which increased confidence in general conclusions. Confidence limits developed for the B-IBI scores were used to distinguish among habitats that were degraded, non-degraded, of intermediate quality, or of indeterminate condition.

International audience; Benthic indices are typically developed independently by habitat, making their incorporation into large geographic scale assessments potentially problematic because of scaling inequities. A potential solution is to establish common scaling using expert best professional judgment (BPJ). To test if experts from dif- ferent geographies agree on condition assessment, sixteen experts from four regions in USA and Europe were provided species-abundance data for twelve sites per region. They ranked samples from best to worst condition and classified samples into four condition (quality) categories. Site rankings were highly correlated among experts, regardless of whether they were assessing samples from their home region. There was also good agreement on condition category, though agreement was better for samples at extremes of the disturbance gradient. The absence of regional bias suggests that expert judgment is a via- ble means for establishing a uniform scale to calibrate indices consistently across geographic regions.

The effects of seasonal hypoxia on population dynamics of macrobenthic organisms were studied at a meso-polyhaline, deep sandy-mud habitat in the lower Rappahannock River, a tributary of Chesapeake Bay (Virginia, U.S.A.). Water quality was monitored on a monthly to weekly basis, spring to autumn, to determine the extent, intensity and duration of hypoxic events. Core samples collected along a five-station transect were used to identify species, discern patterns of spatial and temporal variation of abundance, and determine vertical distribution patterns in the sediment relative to dissolved oxygen fluctuations. A significant decrease in macrobenthic abundance followed by defaunation at some stations was attributed to intermittent hypoxia. Abundance and species number were low during summer, decreasing with increasing water depth and upriver direction in relation to lowest dissolved oxygen concentrations. Species composition appeared to be influenced by hypoxia. Annelid polychaetes comprised the largest percentage of the population, with dominance of ‘opportunists’. The magnitude of the responses to hypoxia appeared to be species-specific. Some polychaetous species such as the spionid Streblospio benedicti and the capitellid Mediomastus ambiseta became locally extinct with the onset of severe hypoxia. In contrast, the terebellid Loimia medusa and the spionid Paraprionospio pinnata were present in affected habitats during subsequent intermittent hypoxia. The vertical distribution of macrobenthos in sediment changed significantly with season, with overall lower abundance at depth in sediment during hypoxia than in normoxia; however, this trend was not always clear or consistent with changes in water-column oxygen concentrations. Alternative factors that may account for such patterns (e.g., recruitment pulses) are discussed. The intensity of hypoxia was correlated with changes in benthic community structure and distribution. Results suggest that the periodicity of hypoxic events may lead to long-term alterations of benthic populations, largely as a reflection of the varying species tolerances and life-histories.

Federal and state environmental agencies conduct several programs to characterize the environmental condition of Chesapeake Bay. These programs use different benthic indices and survey designs, and have produced assessments that differ in the estimate of the extent of benthic community degradation in Chesapeake Bay. Provided that the survey designs are unbiased, differences may exist in the ability of these indices to identify environmental degradation. In this study we compared the results of three indices calculated on the same data, and the assessments of two programs: the Chesapeake Bay Program and the Mid-Atlantic Integrated Assessment (MAIA). We examined the level of agreement of index results using site-based measures of agreement, evaluated sampling designs and statistical estimation methods, and tested for significant differences in assessments. Comparison of ratings of individual sites was done within separate categories of water and sediment quality to identify which indices summarize best pollution problems in Chesapeake Bay. The use of different benthic indices by these programs produced assessments that differed significantly in the estimate of degradation. A larger fraction of poor sites was classified as good by the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program’s Virginian Province and MAIA benthic indices compared to the Chesapeake Bay benthic index of biotic integrity, although overall classification efficiencies were similar for all indices. Differences in survey design also contributed to differences in assessments. The relative difference between the indices remained the same when they were applied to an independent dataset, suggesting that the indices can be calibrated to produce consistent results.

The extent of degradation of benthic communities of the Chesapeake Bay was determined by applying a previously developed benthic index of biotic integrity at three spatial scales. Allocation of sampling was probability-based allowing areal estimates of degradation with known confidence intervals. The three spatial scales were: (1) the tidal Chesapeake Bay; (2) the Elizabeth River watershed; and (3) two small tidal creeks within the Southern Branch of the Elizabeth River that are part of a sediment contaminant remediation effort. The areas covered varied from 10−1 to 104 km2 and all were sampled in 1999. The Chesapeake Bay was divided into ten strata, the Elizabeth River into five strata and each of the two tidal creeks was a single stratum. The determination of the number and size of strata was based upon consideration of both managerially useful units for restoration and limitations of funding. Within each stratum 25 random locations were sampled for benthic community condition. In 1999 the percent of the benthos with poor benthic community condition for the entire Chesapeake Bay was 47% and varied from 20% at the mouth of the Bay to 72% in the Potomac River. The estimated area of benthos with poor benthic community condition for the Elizabeth River was 64% and varied from 52–92%. Both small tidal creeks had estimates of 76% of poor benthic community condition. These kinds of estimates allow environmental managers to better direct restoration efforts and evaluate progress towards restoration. Patterns of benthic community condition at smaller spatial scales may not be correctly inferred from larger spatial scales. Comparisons of patterns in benthic community condition across spatial scales, and between combinations of strata, must be cautiously interpreted.

The Chesapeake Bay benthic index of biotic integrity (B-IBI) was developed to assess benthic community health and environmental quality in Chesapeake Bay. The B-IBI provides Chesapeake Bay monitoring programs with a uniform tool with which to characterize bay-wide benthic community condition and assess the health of the Bay. A probability-based design permits unbiased annual estimates of areal degradation within the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries with quantifiable precision. However, of greatest interest to managers is the identification of problem areas most in need of restoration. Here we apply the B-IBI to benthic data collected in the Bay since 1994 to assess benthic community degradation by Chesapeake Bay Program segment and water depth. We used a new B-IBI classification system that improves the reliability of the estimates of degradation. Estimates were produced for 67 Chesapeake Bay Program segments. Greatest degradation was found in areas that are known to experience hypoxia or show toxic contamination, such as the mesohaline portion of the Potomac River, the Patapsco River, and the Maryland mainstem. Logistic regression models revealed increased probability of degraded benthos with depth for the lower Potomac River, Patapsco River, Nanticoke River, lower York River, and the Maryland mainstem. Our assessment of degradation by segment and water depth provided greater resolution of relative condition than previously available, and helped define the extent of degradation in Chesapeake Bay.

Benthic resource utilization by red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus) and spotted seatrout (Cynoscion nebulosus) was studied in a restored, mangrove-rimmed impoundment (Cabbagehead Bayou) of Upper Tampa Bay, Florida, and in a nearby, natural site of unaltered tidal regime (Double Branch Bay). Diets of fish captured from August 1990 to May 1992 were determined from stomach content analysis. Simultaneously, food availability was evaluated by sampling benthic macroinvertebrates, mobile decapods, and small fish. Red drum and spotted seatrout utilized the restored habitat 1 yr after it was opened to tidal influence. Both species also were collected in the natural mangrove. Although there were noted differences in benthic assemblages between the two sites, red drum and spotted seatrout exhibited flexibility in diet, feeding on abundant and accessible prey. The high abundance of microcrustacea, such as amphipods, on detritus accumulated in the restored habitat constituted a main food resource for both fish species. Major food items in the diet of small (