CURRENT STATUS OF ZOOBENTHIC COMMUNITIES ASSOCIATED WITH DEEP
CIRCALITTORAL HABITATS FROM THE ROMANIAN CONTINENTAL SHELF
Mihaela Cosmina TĂNASE1,
Adrian FILIMON1,
Camelia DUMITRACHE1,
Valeria ABAZA1
1National Institute
for Marine Research and Development Grigore Antipa , 300 Mamaia Blvd., 900581,
Constanța, Romania
* Corresponding
author e-mail: mtanase@alpha.rmri.ro
Abstract. The European environmental policies
related to marine water management require periodic environmental status
assessments. Particularly, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive 2008/56/EC,
clearly specifies that assessment must take into consideration benthic habitat
types, including their associated biological communities. The aim of this study
is to present the results from the ecological analysis of macrobenthic
fauna from deep circalittoral habitats with mixed and mud sediments dominated
by Modiolula phaseolina and Terebellides stroemii and
to provide new information on the current structure and distribution of
communities. The analyzed data covers the period
2021-2022 based on the processing of 56 samples on depths ranging between 60 m to 130 m. A total of 70 macrozoobenthic
species were found in the assemblages, of which Polychaeta group had the
highest number of species and individuals, mostly T. stroemii
and Aonides paucibranchiata. For data interpretation, a synecological analysis was performed allowing the
identification of the species with the most significant contribution to the
ecosystem in terms of function, energy exchanges with the environment, the
species characteristic of a biotope or those that have an accidental presence
in the studied area. Also, the present ecological status of deep circalittoral
habitats was assessed using the M-AMBI*(n) index, which was proposed as one of
the indicators for assessing the good environmental status of marine habitats
in Romanian marine waters.
Keywords: MSFD, good environmental status,
deep circalittoral habitats, Modiolula phaseolina, Terebellides stroemii communities
DOI 10.56082/annalsarscibio.2023.2.13
