| Abstract: | - 1. Transitional waters are ecotones between terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems, being characterized by high spatial heterogeneity and temporal variability.
- 2. The EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) posed to the scientific community the challenge to classify these ecosystems into a small number of types, while retaining a functional classification of ecosystem types.
- 3. A niche theory approach is proposed to identify the limiting forcing factors organizing biological quality elements, i.e. the limiting niche dimensions.
- 4. The analysis of a macro‐invertebrate dataset from published papers on 36 Italian lagoons suggested a two‐level typological classification of Mediterranean lagoons.
- 5. Basic ecological theories, such as niche and island biogeography theories, have fundamental implications for the process of developing a typological classification for all aquatic ecosystems, as required by the WFD.
Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
