Benthic Vegetation as an Ecological Quality Descriptor in an Eastern Mediterranean Coastal Area (Kalloni Bay, Aegean Sea, Greece)

Sampling of phytobenthos was carried out in Kalloni Bay (Lesvos island), in order to study the impact of confinement and eutrophication, using the phytosociological parameters as descriptors of the ecological quality. The study area was dominated by Fucophyceae (mostlyCystoseiraspecies, typical of the climax benthic community) in all stations, although the more eutrophic stations where characterized by the presence ofUlvaandEnteromorphaspecies. The number of species per sample varied from 19 in the inner bay, to 37 near the open sea. The range of the Diversity Index and Evenness values was from 0·96 to 2·47 and 0·25 to 0·51, respectively. The combined action of confinement and eutrophication became apparent on the dendrogram formed on a Bray-Curtis similarity matrix.