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This study assesses the variability of Benthic Assessment using Best Professional Judgment across regions in North America and Europe. Experts ranked and categorized samples to establish a uniform assessment scale. Findings show high agreement among experts, suggesting the potential for a universal assessment scale.
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Sustentabilidade e biodiversidade marinhas Sessão 10C Avaliação da condição ecológica de comunidades macrobentónicas costeiras através de juízo profissional qualificado: Desenvolvimento de consenso entre a América do Norte e a Europa
Sustentabilidade e biodiversidade marinhas Benthic Assessments of Large Areas are as important as problematic • Large area assessments have value, e.g.: • U.S. EPA’s National Coastal Assessment • E.U. Directives: Water Framework Directive and future Marine Strategy ecological assessments • But many benthic assessment tools are developed locally • By habitat, not necessarily on uniform scales • Based on distinct premises • Reporting on different aspects of biological communities Differing scales lead to inaccuracy and bias: Affecting management decisions
Sustentabilidade e biodiversidade marinhas Our study:Evaluated Benthic Assessment BPJ Variability Across Regions • Do expert assessments based on species abundances vary by expert home region? • Can expert judgment be used to establish common scaling across geographic regions? • Consistent scales can be used to calibrate benthic indices Using Best Professional Judgment to Develop A Uniform Benthic Community Assessment ScaleAcross North America and Europe
Sustentabilidade e biodiversidade marinhas Approach • Experts from 4 different regions: • 4 experts per region
Sustentabilidade e biodiversidade marinhas 16 Benthic ecologists US East Coast US West Coast EU Mediterranean EU Atlantic Rafael Sardá João C. Marques Daniel M. Dauer David E. Montagne Anna Occhipinti -Ambrogi Steven Degraer Donald B. Cadien Linda C. Schaffner Ioannis Karakassis Jean-Claude Dauvin Ronald G. Velarde Roberto J. Llansó Lawrence L. Lovell Rutger Rosenberg Antoine Grémare Robert J. Diaz
Sustentabilidade e biodiversidade marinhas Approach • Experts from 4 different regions: • 4 experts per region • Provided with data for 48 samples: • 12 samples per region • Species abundances and minimal habitat data • Samples covered the range of impacts
Sustentabilidade e biodiversidade marinhas 12 samples per region
Sustentabilidade e biodiversidade marinhas Approach Experts asked to: • Rank samples from least to most affected • Overall ranking and within region ranking • Assess samples on a 4 category scale • List their: • Assessment criteria, and • Indicator species
Sustentabilidade e biodiversidade marinhas Samples’ Category Assessments by experts’ home region
Sustentabilidade e biodiversidade marinhas Correlation between Category Assessments Regional mean Spearman rank correlations with the Regional median category: Correlation between Rank Assessments Correlations were generally higher for ranks than categories.
Sustentabilidade e biodiversidade marinhas Category Assessments • Permutational Multivariate ANOVA • Tested expert category assignment patterns • For “Expert Region”, “Sample Region”, & “Expert” effects • 4999 permutations (p=0.05) • Significant differences among experts • - Some experts were tougher graders • - Unrelated to “home” region • US East Coast samples patterns differed from others
Sustentabilidade e biodiversidade marinhas Level of agreement on Category Assessments • Experts classifications’ comparison(weighted Kappa analysis) • “Moderate” to “Almost perfect” Agreement (average kappa = 0.65 ) • 78.5 % of experts comparisons agreeing at Good or higher level Mismatches on > 30% classifications occurred in less than 10 % of the comparisons! Good vs. Bad condition samples – experts agreed on approximately 80 % of the comparisons Level of agreement on Rank Assessments • Expert rank vs. median rank of samples • Average Spearman Rank Correlationcoefficient of0.85
Assessment Variability Ranks ←Disturbance Gradient→ “Good” “Bad”
Assessment Variability Categories ←Disturbance Gradient→ “Good” “Bad”
Sustentabilidade e biodiversidade marinhas Top 10 Indicator Taxa
Sustentabilidade e biodiversidade marinhas Conclusions • A universal assessment scale is a possibility • No differences by expert “home” region • There was good agreement among experts • Agreement was higher towards the ends of the disturbance gradient • There was higher agreement among experts when: • Including indicator organisms • Using more indicators
Sustentabilidade e biodiversidade marinhas Steve Weisberg SCCWRP Ananda Ranasinghe SCCWRP Ángel Borja AZTI Tecnalia Obrigada pela vossa atenção!