J. Black Sea/Mediterranean Environment Vol. 24, No. 2: 97-114 (2018) RESEARCH ARTICLE Ecological quality of the Sea of Marmara (Turkey) assessed by the Marine Floristic Ecological Index (MARFEI) Ergün Taşkın1*, Kostas Tsiamis2,3, Sotiris Orfanidis4 1Manisa Celal Bayar University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Biology, Muradiye, Yunusemre, 45140, Manisa, TURKEY 2Institute of Oceanography, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Anavissos, 19013 GREECE 3European Commission, Joint Research Centre – Directorate for Sustainable Resources, Water & Marine Resources Unit, Ispra, ITALY 4Fisheries Research Institute, Hellenic Agricultural Organization-Demeter, 640 07 Nea Peramos, Kavala, GREECE *Corresponding author: [email protected] Abstract Benthic macrophytes (macroalgae and angiosperms) are proposed as biological elements to assess the ecological status of coastal and transitional waters within the EU Water Framework Directive. In the present paper, a sampling of benthic macrophytes was made from 0-5 m depth at 25 different sites of the Sea of Marmara (Turkey) in 2015 and the Marine Floristic Ecological Index (MARFEI) was applied. Macrophytes were classified into five ecological status groups: ESGI (IA, IB, IC; late-successional taxa such as Cystoseira spp., angiosperms, calcareous algae) and ESGII (IIA, IIB; opportunistic taxa such as filamentous and sheet-like green algae). The study revealed good ecological status class (ESC) for 1 site, moderate for 11 sites, poor for 10 sites, and bad for 3 sites. MARFEIEQR showed a strong negative linear relationship with the pressure index MA- LUSI. Nevertheless, the results of this study have to be validated by similar studies in other georgaphical areas. Keywords: Angiosperms, MARFEI, pressures, marine algae, taxonomy Received: 15.02.2018, Accepted: 10.05.2018 Introduction The EU Water Framework Directive (WFD, 2000/60/EC) requires the establishment of monitoring programs to assess the ecological status in coastal and transitional waters throughout Europe. To facilitate this task, macroalgae and 97 angiosperms were proposed as key biological quality elements. Marine benthic macrophytes, especially seagrasses and perennial macroalgae, are sensitive to anthropogenic activities, especially those linked with nutrient input and degradation of light regime in the water leading to eutrophication. For this reason several macrophyte indices have been proposed for the Mediterranea eco-region. These indices include the following: the Ecological Evaluation Index (EEI) (Orfanidis et al. 2001, 2011), the Posidonia oceanica multivariate index (POMI) (Romero et al. 2007), the CARtography of LITtoral (CARLIT) (Ballesteros et al. 2007), the Macrophyte Quality Index (MaQI) (Sfriso et al. 2007, 2009), the Posidonia oceanica Rapid Easy Index (PREI) (Gobert et al. 2009), and the Alien Biotic Index (ALEX) (Çınar and Bakır 2014; Piazzi et al. 2015). Recently, EEI and CARLIT for coastal waters, and EEI and MAQI for transitional waters have been succesfully intercalibrated by the Mediterranean Geographic Intercalibration Group (MEDGIG) (EC 2013), to ensure that good ecological status represents the same level ecological quality across the Mediterranean eco- region. EEI has been applied in Greece, Cyprus, and Slovenia (Orfanidis et al. 2001, 2011; Panayotidis et al. 2004; Orlando-Bonaca et al. 2008). Nikolić et al. (2011) tested both CARLIT and EEI to measure the ecological status of the Adriatic coast of Croatia. Macrophyte biotic indices (EEI, CARLIT, and MaQI) were tested for the ecological quality classification of Turkish coastal and transitional waters by Taşkın and Öztürk (2014a, b), Taşkın et al. (2013, 2016), Dağlar and Taşkın (2015), Taşkın (2015). In the present study, a new method, namely, the Marine Floristic Ecological Index (MARFEI), was tested to assess the ecological status classes at 25 sites of the Sea of Marmara (Turkey). The concept of the MARFEI index is similar to EEI, and it is based on the obvious and universal pattern that “anthropogenic disturbance, e.g. pollution, eutrophication, shifts the ecosystem from pristine to more degraded states, and where opportunistic species are dominant” (Orfanidis et al. 2001). The relationship between the pressure index MA-LUSI and MARFEIEQR is also tested. Materials and Methods Study area The Sea of Marmara is bordered completely by Turkey. It connects the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea, and it is connected to the Black Sea by the Istanbul (Bosphorus) Strait and to the Aegean Sea by the Çanakkale (Dardanelles) Strait. There are many islands (the Marmara Island, Paşalimanı Island, Prices Islands, etc.) in the Sea of Marmara. Sampling was made at 25 localities in the Sea of Marmara (Turkey) in 2015 (Figure 1). 98 Figure 1. Research area and sampling stations in the Sea of Marmara (Turkey) [1-İntepe; 2-Çanakkale; 3-Eceabat; 4-Gelibolu; 5-Şarköy; 6-Tekirdağ; 7-M.Ereğlisi; 8- Silivri; 9-B.Çekmece; 10-K.Çekmece; 11-Haliç; 12-Üsküdar; 13-Princes Islands; 14- Hereke; 15-Kocaeli; 16-Yalova; 17-Armutlu; 18-Gemlik; 19-Mudanya; 20-Susurluk River-Boğaz; 21-Bandırma; 22-Erdek; 23-Paşalimanı Island; 24-Karabiga; 25-Lapseki] Sampling The material was collected by snorkeling from a 100 x100 m area per station in May and November 2015, and specimens were preserved in 2-5% formaldehyde in sea water. Samples were studied using a light microscope (Nikon SE), and voucher specimens are deposited in the personal herbaria of Ergün Taşkın (ET) in the Department of Biology of the Manisa Celal Bayar University (Manisa, Turkey). Nomenclature was checked against Guiry and Guiry (2018). Environmental parameters Physico-chemical parameters (salinity, temperature, pH, conductivity, turbidity, and dissolved oxygen) were measured by Water Quality Checker™ (DKK-TOA WQC 24). Ortho-phosphate (Parsons et al. 1984), and ammonium nitrogen (Strickland and Parsons, 1972) were also measured (Table 1). 99 Table 1. The average physico-chemical parameters of the sampling stations (T: temperature, DO:dissolved oxygen; Turb.: turbidity; Cond.: conductivity; Sal.: salinity; P: phosphate; AN: ammonium nitrogen) DO Turb. Cond. Sal. P AN Stations pH T(°C) (mg/L) (NTU) (S/m) ( ‰) (mg/L) (mg/L) İntepe 8.42 20.1 8.25 0 3.78 23.8 0.325 0.045 Çanakkale 8.30 16 6.7 0 3.68 22.9 0.297 0.049 Eceabat 8.41 16.3 8.6 0 3.68 23.3 0.322 0.045 Gelibolu 8.16 15.41 6.09 0 3.56 21.9 0.289 0.048 Şarköy 8.44 15.1 9.75 0 3.54 21.8 0.259 0.046 Tekirdağ 8.26 18.3 7.56 2 3.29 20.4 0.298 0.054 Marmara Ereğlisi 8.29 23.2 7.3 10.2 3.14 19.5 0.304 0.045 Silivri 8.20 23.6 7.5 19.6 2.48 15.1 0.311 0.049 Büyükçekmece 8.50 19.4 10.1 11.9 2.98 18.3 0.289 0.042 Küçükçekmece 8.82 18.9 10.26 13.6 2.16 13.1 0.262 0.041 Haliç 7.91 14.9 5.93 0.9 2.56 15.2 0.274 0.05 Üsküdar 8.17 12.4 7.58 0 3.03 17.8 0.237 0.048 Princes Islands 8.38 17.2 9.32 3.7 3.19 19.4 0.249 0.041 Hereke 8.32 18.5 4.81 5.2 3.15 19.3 0.251 0.043 Kocaeli 8.65 18.9 9.56 1.4 3.51 21.9 0.249 0.042 Yalova 8.30 17.1 7.65 0 3.52 22 0.292 0.046 Armutlu 8.59 21.8 9.5 12.1 3.39 21.3 0.263 0.038 Gemlik 8.32 23 6.56 37 2.12 12.7 0.264 2.161 Mudanya 8.54 20.5 8.86 1.1 2.83 17.3 0.308 0.042 Susurluk River- Boğaz 8.67 22.7 11.45 2.3 3.05 18.9 0.287 0.049 Bandırma 8.39 21 8.37 5 3.46 21.6 0.289 0.051 Erdek 8.38 18.1 8.43 0.7 3.83 24.1 0.285 0.052 Paşalimanı Island 8.35 17.6 8.05 0 3.5 21.6 0.333 0.055 Karabiga 8.54 23.3 10.35 2.7 3.59 22.7 0.31 0.051 Lapseki 8.48 19.7 9.2 2.7 3.65 22.8 0.156 0.059 Pressure data The Macroalgae-Land Uses Simplified Index (MA-LUSI) has been developed as an improvement of LUSI index (Flo et al. 2011) using pressures affecting the benthic macrophytes. The MA-LUSI index takes under account the pressures from mariculture, sewage outfall, harbours, irregular fresh water inputs, sediment nutrient release, urban, commercial and industrial, agriculture, and background trophic status affect a 3 km buffer zone around the sampling site. It has been developed by the MEDGIG of macroalgae (EC 2013). 100 Data analysis Macrophytes (macroalgae and angiosperms) were classified into five ecological status groups, ESGI (IA, IB, IC; late-successional taxa such as Cystoseira spp., angiosperms, calcareous algae), and ESGII (IIA, IIB; opportunistic taxa such as filamentous and sheet-like green algae) (Orfanidis et al. 2011) (Appendix 1). Ecological quality ratio (EQR) between 0 and 1 was obtained by the formulation (bad=0-0.20; poor=0.20-0.40; moderate=0.40-0.60; good=0.60-0.80; high=0.80- 1). Formula; MARFEIEQR = (4 ∗ %IA + 3 ∗ %IB + 2 ∗ %IC)⁄(1 ∗ IIA + 0,5 ∗ IIB) The relationship between pressures and MARFEIEQR values was calculated using the MA-LUSI index. Results and Discussion Physicochemical parameters were found as pH min. 7.91 – max. 8.82, temperature (°C) min. 12.4 – max. 23.6, salinity min. 12.7 – max. 23.8, dissolved oxygen (mg/L) min. 4.81 – max. 11.45, turbidity (NTU) min.