TWIN: a TWo-stage INdex to evaluate ecological quality status in lagoon environments by means of hard bottom zoobenthos

The macrobenthos colonizing the artificial hard bottoms in lagoons has been used in biomonitoring programs as it requires easy sampling procedures and provides a variety of responses to different environmental pressures, like marine or continental influence, eutrophication, and urban pollution. In this paper we present the development and application of a new TWo-stage INdex (TWIN), aimed to assess water quality of lagoon environments using the hard bottom macrobenthos community. TWIN is calculated in two separate stages. First, the presence and abundance of macrobenthic species are used to define, through a fuzzy model, a station's membership grade in six pre-defined ecological sectors (Lagoon Mouth, Vivified Lagoon, Rough Eutrophic, Calm Eutrophic, Urban, Estuarine), each corresponding to characteristic communities. Then a formula links the membership grades to the five ecological status classes ranging from high to bad quality, as requested by the European Water Framework Directive. This method was tested in four Adriatic lagoons: the results are consistent with literature information and expert judgement, therefore we propose its use in the definition of water quality in lagoons.