Communications of the ACM
Eleven Countries se an Azti-Tecnalia Software as a Method to Assess the Status of Their Seabeds
Credit: Jose.B.Ruiz/naturepl.com
AZTI-Tecnalia has developed software that allows users to assess the ecological status of seabed fauna.
AZTI's Marine Biotic Index (AMBI) includes data on more than 6,000 seabed animals worldwide. For an environmental study of benthos, the software would evaluate the status of fauna based on calculating the proportions of species sensitive to pollution, species indifferent to pollution, tolerant, and first- and second-order opportunistic species.
The software classifies each of the species collected in samples taken from the seabed, based on these five environmental groups. The selection is particularly accurate, considering the volume of records on animal species, and the software can identify which of the ecological groups mentioned they belong to.
In addition to offering AMBI, the research and development center has adapted a version specifically for the European Water Framework Directive. Eleven European countries are now using the software tool, which can be downloaded free of charge, and its use could spread to the United States, Chile, and China. The tools could help protect against marine and shoreline pollution, and they have aided publications, scientific reports, and Ph.D. theses in more 30 countries.
From Basque Research
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Abstracts Copyright © 2012 Information Inc. 
, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
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