Soft bottom macrofauna monitoring under anthropogenic influences in Calvi bay, Corsica: Methodological simplifications

This work is within the framework of STARE-CAPMED long-term research program of STARESO dedicated to STAtion of Reference and rEsearch on Change of local and global Anthropogenic Pressures on Mediterranean Ecosystem Drifts. For the soft-bottom macrofauna topic, fourteen stations are sampled one to two times per year, along gradients from anthropogenic sources of influence (river mouth, fish farm, anchoring areas and sewage) mere 2 stations out of influences.
The sorting and analysis of soft-bottom macrofauna is time consuming and some methodological simplifications are looking for. Moreover, an adaptation of the M-AMBI for the weak human impacted geographic zone, the Corsica, is envisaged by a weighting with the Piélou index. As a first time, all is done at the species level. In a second time, the steps are done at genus and family levels. By comparison of results obtained between different identification levels, the taxonomic sufficiency (TS) for the Corsican coastal waters is determined. The adapted M-AMBI calculation and TS are applied on the macrofauna populations identified in Calvi bay.
It could be interesting to test the analysis process applied around Corsica on other Mediterranean areas.