Indicative value of benthic foraminifera for biomonitoring: Assignment to ecological groups of sensitivity to total organic carbon of species from European intertidal areas and transitional waters

This work contributes to the ongoing aiming at confirming benthic foraminifera as a biological quality element. In this study, from intertidal and transitional waters English Channel/European Atlantic coast Mediterranean Sea were assigned five ecological groups using weighted-averaging optimum with respect TOC of each species. It was however not possible assign typical salt marsh species due presence labile refractory organic matter that hampers characterization. Tests study species' lists Foram-AMBI on two independent datasets showed significant correlation between TOC, strong relation TOC. For one validation datasets, associated macrofaunal data available found foraminiferal AMBI. The here proposed should be further tested sensitivity-based indices in different European regional settings.