Ecological status The main concept of Ecological Evaluation Index
Ecological Evaluation Index (EEI) developed by Dr. Sotiris Orfanidis, is a biotic index for the impementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) in rocky coastal and sedimentary transitional Mediterranean Waters.
Main Concept:
The concept of the EEI is based on the obvious and universal pattern that anthropogenic disturbance, e.g. pollution-eutrophication, shifts the ecosystem from pristine where late-successional species is dominant to degraded state, where opportunistic species is dominant (see Figure). Marine benthic macrophytes (seaweeds, angiosperms) were used as bio-indicators of ecosystem shifts, from the pristine state with late-successional species (Ecological State Group I) to the degraded state with opportunistic species (ESG II). In moderately impacted coasts slow growing, shade-adapted calcareous species (ESG IC) and opportunistic macroalgae often co-dominate.
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