Impact of hydromorphological pressures on the macrophytes bioindicators of the ecological water quality in Mediterranean rivers

One of the important tools to evaluate the ecological quality of surface water is the Macrophytes indices based on the bioindication capacity of aquatic plants. In Mediterranean rivers (France, Spain, and Portugal), the development of some macrophytes indices like l’Indice Biologique Macrophytes Rivières (IBMR), the biological metric score (BMS), as well as the Fluvial Macrophyte Index (IMF) are founded on the determination of the indicator values of the floristic reference lists.

The aim of this study was to test the impact of the eco-Mediterranean differences (from one country to another) on the indicator taxa by comparing the indicator values of the Euro‐ Mediterranean macrophyte indices. With this in mind, we explore the possibility of the introduction of the Euro‐Mediterranean macrophytes-based indices in Morocco (i.e. the hydrological basin of Sebou (HBS)) as a part of a preliminary attempt to develop the first Afro-Mediterranean macrophyte index.

We confirm that the ecologi...