Diatom species composition and indices for determining the ecological status of coastal Mediterranean Spanish lakes

Diatom indices have been used and tested mainly for assessing the ecological status of rivers and deep lakes, but there are scarce studies that determine their effectiveness in shallow lakes and in coastal Mediterranean lakes. This study evaluates the validity of several common diatom indices (SPI, BDI, CEC and TDIL) for the determination of the ecological quality of three coastal lakes (Valencia, Spain) and presents descriptions and ecological data of the main diatom species recorded. Diatom samples were collected from phytobenthos, both from epiphyton of the dominant submerged macrophytes and the sediment. The ecological status of the systems was determined according to different physico-…