Current ecological study of hard substrate habitats from coastal waters of the Romanian Black Sea area

Benthic communities are considered excellent indicators of the ecological status of the marine environment. This study aims to present the results from the ecological analysis of benthic communities from infralittoral hard substrate habitats in Romanian coastal waters and provide updated information on the current structure and distribution of flora and fauna communities. During 2020-2021, macroalgae samples were collected from Pescărie - Vama Veche area, at depths between 0 and 8 m, while the zoobenthic samples were collected from Tuzla - Mangalia area in the bathymetric interval 2 and 10 m. The ecological evaluation of the phytobenthic communities was performed by applying the multiparametric Ecological Index, whilst the zoobenthic ecological study was accomplished based on the synecological analysis. Broad habitat Infralittoral rock and biogenic reef with its related sub-types: Upper-infralittoral rock dominated by Cystoseira barbata, Upper infralittoral rock with Coccotylus brodiei, Upper infralittoral rock with variable annual green and red macroalgae and Infralittoral rock dominated by Mytilids, were analysed. Upper infralittoral rock with variable annual green and red macroalgae did not achieve good ecological status in the last two years, while the habitats formed by the key species C. barbata and C. brodiei have been found in good ecological status. Zoobenthic communities’ structure and distribution showed that Mytilus galloprovincialis community was dominant, constantly accompanied by Mytilaster lineatus, whose numerical dominance was highest between 2 and 3 m depth. Regarding the algae communities, quantitatively dominant were the green algae of the genera Ulva and Cladophora at most sampling stations.