Linking classification boundaries to sources of natural variability in transitional waters: A case study of benthic macroinvertebrates

The assessment of human impacts on aquatic ecosystems requires separate quantification of natural and anthropogenic sources of environmental variability. This statement is very challenging in some categories of water bodies such as transitional waters, because they are naturally stressed ecosystems in which natural variability occur on different spatial scales (gradients versus patchiness) and temporal scales (regular versus pulse events).