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Assessing coastal benthic macrofauna community condition using best professional judgement - Developing consensus across North America and Europe |
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| Authors: | Heliana Teixeira Ángel Borja J Ananda Ranasinghe Daniel M Dauer Steven Degraer Antoine Grémare Roberto J Llansó João C Marques Anna Occhipinti-Ambrogi Rafael Sardá Ronald G Velarde |
| Institution: | a IMAR, Institute of Marine Research, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of Coimbra, 3004-517 Coimbra, Portugal b AZTI-Tecnalia, Marine Research Division, Herrera Kaia Portualdea s/n, 20110 Pasaia, Spain c Southern California Coastal Water Research Project, 3535 Harbor Blvd., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, USA d Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County, Ocean Monitoring and Research Group, 24501 S. Figueroa St., Carson, CA 90745, USA e Department of Biological Sciences, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 23529, USA f Université de Lille 1 Laboratoire d’Océanologie et de Géosciences, UMR CNRS 8187 LOG, Station Marine de Wimereux, BP 80, F-62930 Wimereux, France g Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Management Unit of the North Sea Mathematical Models, Marine Ecosystem Management Section, Gulledelle 100, 1200 Brussels, Belgium h Department of Biological Sciences, School of Marine Science, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, The College of William and Mary, Gloucester Point, VA 23062, USA i Université Bordeaux 1, UMR 5805, EPOC, Station Marine d’Arcachon, 2 Rue du Pr Jolyet, 33120 Arcachon, France j University of Crete, Department of Biology, Marine Ecology Lab, GR-71409 Iraklion, Crete, Greece k Versar, Inc., 9200 Rumsey Road, Columbia, MD 21045, USA l P.O. Box 2004, Penn Valley, CA 95946, USA m Dept. of “Ecologia del Territorio”, Section of Ecology, Via S.Epifanio 14, I-27100 Pavia, Italy n Department of Marine Ecology, University of Gothenburg, Kristineberg 566, 450 34 Fiskebøckskil, Sweden o Centre d’Estudis Avançats de Blanes, CSIC, Cta. Accés a la Cala Sant Francesc, 14, 17300 Blanes, Girona, Spain p City of San Diego, Marine Biology Laboratory, 2392 Kincaid Road, San Diego, CA 92101, USA |
| Abstract: | Benthic indices are typically developed independently by habitat, making their incorporation into large geographic scale assessments potentially problematic because of scaling inequities. A potential solution is to establish common scaling using expert best professional judgment (BPJ). To test if experts from different geographies agree on condition assessment, sixteen experts from four regions in USA and Europe were provided species-abundance data for twelve sites per region. They ranked samples from best to worst condition and classified samples into four condition (quality) categories. Site rankings were highly correlated among experts, regardless of whether they were assessing samples from their home region. There was also good agreement on condition category, though agreement was better for samples at extremes of the disturbance gradient. The absence of regional bias suggests that expert judgment is a viable means for establishing a uniform scale to calibrate indices consistently across geographic regions. |
| Keywords: | Best professional judgment Coastal benthic macrofauna Anthropogenic disturbance Quality assessment North America Europe |
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