A method for assessing the ecological status of bottom population and some possibilities of its application

A method for monitoring the ecological state of macrozoobenthos and damage to the habitats is developed on the base of mathematical model that describes transition of bottom animal communities from the biologically balanced state through unbalanced stadium to the physically controlled state. Nonlinearity of this dependence (logistic function) allows to determine boundary criteria or critical levels of the communities state as quantitative measures for degree of their habitat damage. The first critical level is the community effect range-low ( CERL ) with the environmental stress index 15 %. This is a “target value” to strive in order to restore functional properties of bottom sediments for animal life. The second critical level is the community effect range-medium ( CERM ) with the environmental stress index 36 %. This is an “intervention value” of strongly reduced functional properties of the habitat that represents danger conditions and requires human intervention. For more detailed characteristics of the bottom population and their environments disturbance, the macrozoobenthos communities can be classified into the biologically balanced, variously unbalanced, physically controlled, and destroyed/recovering ones.

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