Quality assessment of Mediterranean and Black Sea transitional waters: comparing responses of benthic biotic indices.

The article discusses the environmental quality assessment of Mediterranean and Black Sea transitional waters by comparing the patterns of variation of five benthic biotic indices. Eight transitional water habitats were investigated, including lagoons, coastal lakes and saltmarsh. Results show that biotic indices provided contrasting responses in terms of environmental quality assessments of each habitat. It suggests further study to develop a biotic index that provides useful and unambiguous data under various anthropogenic pressures and in various transitional waters.