Assessment Level of Severity of Environmental Disturbance Caused by Aquaculture Activities Using Abundance-Biomass Curves of Macrobenthic Assemblages

Abstract

Abundance-Biomass comparison (ABC) was applied to assess the level of environmental disturbance by the changes in the pattern of abundance and biomass of macrobenthic assemblages taken from various types of sediments. In the most sedimentary habitats, polychaetes usually dominate the structure and considered the most tolerant to stress associated with organic loading and low oxygen levels, thus effective as environmental indicator using ABC curve. The aim the study is to assess the environmental changes caused by Aquaculture activities using ABC curve of polychaetes assemblages as presented using the Shannon-Wiener (H’) index at the studied areas. The results showed that approach to multivariate and graphical methods, especially using ABC curves can sensitively detect any environmental change, particularly changes in polychaetesassemblages, water quality and sediment over time.