title: Assessing environmental health using ecological indices for soft bottom in sewage-affected rocky shores: The case of the largest seaside resort of SW Atlantic.
abstract: Efficient ecological indices can reflect the differences between impacted and nonimpacted sites, leading to significant variations at the contamination spatial scale. Here, we evaluated the spatial-temporal variability of 3 ecological indices (AMBI, M-AMBI, and BENTIX) in response to the distinct levels of sewage contamination. The indices were evaluated in two different ways: including Brachidontes rodriguezii (IBR) and excluding B. rodriguezii (EBR). The fact that mussel beds create a secondary infaunal habitat allows us to test these indices for soft bottoms in areas with rocky bottoms. The effectiveness and the level of agreement of these indices were increased when they were calculated with EBR. BENTIX and M-AMBI produced under- and overestimations of the ecological status of the studied sites. AMBI (EBR) seems to be better suited for environmental quality assessment in the study area. This index reduces the processing time of samples; thus, the AMBI (EBR) index could be used as a robust management tool for monitoring programs in areas with hard substrate.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras (IIMyC), Departamento de Ciencias Marinas, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Deán Funes 3350, B 7602 AYL Mar del Plata, Argentina; Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Av. Rivadavia 1917, C1033AAJ Buenos Aires, Argentina. Electronic address: garaffo@mdp.edu.ar.
authors.forename: G V
authors.initials: GV
authors.lastname: Garaffo
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras (IIMyC), Departamento de Ciencias Marinas, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Deán Funes 3350, B 7602 AYL Mar del Plata, Argentina; Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Av. Rivadavia 1917, C1033AAJ Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Jaubet
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras (IIMyC), Departamento de Ciencias Marinas, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Deán Funes 3350, B 7602 AYL Mar del Plata, Argentina; Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Av. Rivadavia 1917, C1033AAJ Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Becherucci
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras (IIMyC), Departamento de Ciencias Marinas, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Deán Funes 3350, B 7602 AYL Mar del Plata, Argentina; Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Av. Rivadavia 1917, C1033AAJ Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Elías
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001267:Atlantic Ocean; D004463:Ecology; D017753:Ecosystem; D004782:Environmental Health; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D007448:Invertebrates; D012722:Sewage
chemical_list: D012722:Sewage
keywords: AMBI; BENTIX; M-AMBI; Urban effluents