A comparison of the applicability of the Shannon-Wiener index, AMBI and M-AMBI indices for assessing benthic habitat hea
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A comparison of the applicability of the Shannon-Wiener index, AMBI and M-AMBI indices for assessing benthic habitat health in the Huanghe (Yellow River) Estuary and adjacent areas LUO Xianxiang1*, SUN Kaijing1, YANG Jianqiang2, 3, SONG Wenpeng3, 4, CUI Wenlin3, 4 1 Key Laboratory of Marine Environment and Ecology, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, China 2 North China Sea Branch of State Oceanic Administration, Qingdao 266033, China 3 Laboratory of State Oceanic Administration for Marine Spill Oil Identification and Damage Assessment Technology,
Qingdao 266033, China 4 North China Sea Monitoring Center, North China Sea Branch of State Oceanic Administration, Qingdao 266033,
China Received 18 January 2015; accepted 7 August 2015 ©The Chinese Society of Oceanography and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016
Abstract
From a dataset of macrobenthos obtained from 18 cruises from 2004 to 2013 in the Huanghe (Yellow River) Estuary and its adjacent areas, the composition and characteristics of macrobenthos were analyzed, and the applicability of the Shannon-Wiener Index (H′), AZTI’s Marine Biotic Index (AMBI) and multivariate AMBI (MAMBI) for assessing benthic habitat quality was compared. The results showed a total of 203 macrobenthos in the study area. The macrobenthos were dominated by polychaetes, followed by mollusks and crustaceans. The macrobenthic ecological groups were dominated by EGI, EGII and EGIII, which respectively accounted for 31.5%, 36.0% and 21.2% of the total. There were significant differences between the evaluation results of the three indices. The ecological quality status (EQS) levels given by the AMBI were greater than those given by the H′ and M-AMBI. The AMBI could not reflect the differences between 11 sites but the H′ and M-AMBI could do. Moreover, the three indices responded well to the variations in salinity (S) and dissolved oxygen (DO) in the waters. The H′ and MAMBI also responded sensitively to the differences in physical parameters, such as water depth and sediment texture. The correlation between M-AMBI and environmental pressure gradient data was the strongest. The MAMBI could effectively distinguish degraded conditions from undegraded but the H′ and AMBI could not. Therefore, the M-AMBI reflected benthic habitat health well in the study areas. However, the objectivity of evaluation results of M-AMBI needs further verification by physical, chemical and biological methods. The thresholds also need further discussion. Key words: macrobenthos, ecological quality status, Huanghe Estuary, Shannon-Wiener index, AMBI, M-AMBI Citation: Luo Xianxiang, Sun Kaijing, Yang Jianqiang, Song Wenpeng, Cui Wenlin. 2016. A comparison of the applicability of the ShannonWiener index, AMBI and M-AMBI indices for assessing benthic habitat health in the Huanghe (Yellow River) Estuary and adjacent areas. Acta Oceanologica Sinica, 35(6): 50–58, doi: 10.1007/s13131-016-0842-9
1 Introduction Marine ecosystem health means the comprehensive characteristics of marine ecosystem. The marine ecosystem is
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