The use of non-taxonomic descriptors to assess the ecological status of soft-bottom macrozoobenthic communities Benedetta Trabucco * , Marina Penna * , Michele Scardi ** & Eugenio Fresi ** * ICRAM, Via di Casalotti 300, Roma, Italia ** Dipartimento di Ecologia, Università degli Studi di Roma Tor vergata, Via di Passolombardo, Roma, Italia Abstract Soft-bottom benthic communities are widely studied in order to assess the environmental quality of coastal marine ecosystem, as the organisms live within the sea sediment with long life spans and then are able to integrate spatial-temporal effects over time. Different human impacts on coastal zone in fact may have effects on the benthic assemblages through changes in the environmental characteristics. With the aim to define a procedure for the assessment of environmental quality, here we present an initial approach to investigate the soft-bottom macrozoobenthic community structure using alternative descriptors to the taxonomic ones. 50 datasets of the Italian coastal sea (from 5 to 50 m of depht) benthic assemblages have been studying by a series of life history, morphological and behavioural characteristics of species (such as feeding habits, body size, body form, adult longevity, living habit, etc.) to indicate aspects of their ecological functioning. The selection of different biological descriptors by a variety of literature sources and by consulting experts and the use of proper multivariate analyses techniques represent the main activities in a broader effort to define guidelines for the acquisition of data on alternative descriptors and then analyse their relations with the taxonomic ones. © 2005 SItE. All rights reserved Keywords: macrozoobenthos, descrittori non tassonomici, stato ecologico, Water Framework Directive ——— * Corresponding author. Tel.: +39-06-61570446; fax: +39-0661561906; e-mail: b.trabucco@icram.org. *