Ecological Indicators 11 (2011) 772–781 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Ecological Indicators journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolind Original article Macrophytes in the anthropic constructions of the Venice littorals and their ecological assessment by an integration of the “CARLIT” index Adriano Sfriso ∗,1 , Chiara Facca 1 Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Venice, Calle Larga, S. Marta 2137, 30123 - Venice, Italy article info Article history: Received 19 January 2010 Received in revised form 1 October 2010 Accepted 5 October 2010 Keywords: Anthropic constructions CARLIT Ecological status E-MaQI Macroalgae Venice Lagoon abstract A check-list of the macroalgae which colonize the artificial structures “dykes” formed by limestone blocks, placed between the northern Adriatic Sea and the Venice Lagoon to protect the wide sea inlets of Lido and Malamocco, the stone breakwaters and the submerged reefs parallel and perpendicular to the sea coastline of the Lido island “Murazzi” is presented. Macroalgae have been sampled monthly during one- year period (February 2007–January 2008) both in the lagoon inlets and along the marine coast. Flora was represented by 213 taxa: 61 Chlorophyta, 114 Rhodophyta, 38 Ochrophyta (37 Phaeophyceae, 1 Xanthophyceae), with the richest and luxuriant vegetation in the lagoon inlet areas. The application of the Rhodophyta/Chlorophyta (R/C) index and the Expert-Macrophyte Quality Index (E-MaQI) highlighted the “High” ecological status (EQR > 0.9) of the lagoon inlet areas. As E-MaQI is not applicable in marine areas, an adaptation of CARLIT to the anthropic structures of the north-western coasts of the northern Adriatic Sea and its integration with the dominant taxa is proposed. The application of the revised index to the Lido dykes and breakwaters placed along the marine littorals shows “Moderate” conditions. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The lagoon inlets and the marine coastline of the Lido and Pellestrina islands facing the Venice Lagoon, since the 18th cen- tury, have been defended by the marine dykes situated at the lagoon mouths and by an emerged stone breakwater known as “Murazzi” built parallel to the marine coast and provided with perpendicular stone breakwaters. More recently a submerged reef was placed ca. 300 m offshore parallel to “Murazzi” at a 3–4 m depth. The huge anthropic structures that flank the three lagoon mouths (Lido, Malamocco, Chioggia) which stretch up to 2–3 km toward the sea and are deep 10–20 m, the reefs and the breakwa- ters along the marine coastline can now be considered as natural environments. In fact, the oldest “Murazzi” dates back to 1763–82 whereas Malamocco, Lido and Chioggia dykes to 1860, 1896 and 1933–34, respectively (La Rocca, 2002). Although these structures are affected by the turbid and eutrophic waters of the lagoon that change at every tidal cycle (12 h), their macroalgal flora is rich and abundant. The luxuriant vegetation is dominated by species of big size such as: Cystoseira barbata (Stackhouse) C. Agardh, C. compressa (Esper) Gerloff et Nizamuddin, Sargassum muticum (Yendo) Fensholt and smaller species such as: Dictyopteris polypo- ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 041 2348529. E-mail addresses: sfrisoad@unive.it (A. Sfriso), facca@unive.it (C. Facca). 1 Tel.: +39 0412348529; fax +39 0412348584. dioides (A. P. De Candolle) J.V. Lamouroux, Dictyota dichotoma J. V. Lamouroux, Ulva rigida C. Agardh and Ulva laetevirens Areschoug (Sfriso et al., 2009b; Sfriso, 2010), but there are several other species, especially turfing taxa such as Caulacanthus, Ceramium, Chondria, Corallina, Gelidium, Gracilaria, Gymnogongrus and Polysi- phonia. The first check-list of the macroalgae which colonize these structures was reported by Sfriso (1987) who recorded 108 taxa (current nomenclature). Before him, Schiffner and Vatova (1938) and Pignatti (1962) reported the flora recorded in the lagoon of Venice. Many taxa have also been found in the Lido and Pellest- rina breakwaters and along the “Murazzi” but their papers do not detail the exact localization of the taxa. In 1995 Curiel et al. (1997) recorded 73 taxa by studying 2 sites in the north and south dykes of the Lido inlet and 2 sites in the north dyke of Chioggia inlet. Sam- pling was carried out only once in summer. Later, Curiel et al. (1999) reported 109 taxa by studying 2 sites in the north and south dykes of the three Venice inlets (12 stations). That number rose to 133 taxa by considering 18 sampling sites in 1994 (Curiel et al., 2009). Other studies dealt with the colonization of the recent deposition of submerged reefs parallel to Pellestrina and Lido islands (Miotti et al., 2006; Cecconi et al., 2008), but macroalgal lists report only 61 and 62 macroalgae, respectively (Fig. 1). This paper aims at presenting the results of a macroalgal sam- pling performed monthly during one year (2007–2008) on the Lido and Malamocco dykes (both marine and lagoon side) and on the marine reefs and stone breakwaters placed along the shores of Lido island. The objective is to update the species check-list after 1470-160X/$ – see front matter © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2010.10.002