Coastal Waters
Ecological status groups and traits of coastal water marine benthic vegetation
By studding morphological (external morphology, internal anatomy, texture), physiological (surface area/volume ratio, photosynthetic/non-photosynthetic ratio, photosynthetic performance, growth, light adaptation) and life history (longevity, succession) traits along with distributional data across eutrophication gradients two main groups of coastal water macroalgae were identified: the slow-growing, late-successional species (ESG I) and the fast-growing, opportunistic species (ESG II). Those groups were hierarchically divided into three and two sub-clusters, respectively:
- ESG I comprises thick perennial (IA), thick plastic (IB) and shade-adapted plastic species (IC), and
- ESG II comprises fleshy opportunistic (IIA) and filamentous sheet-like opportunistic (IIB) species.
Key functional traits and names of coastal water benthic macropthyte Ecological Status Groups