Accurately assessing the ecological and environmental status of marine ecosystems is essential to protect biodiversity and ensure sustainable resource management. Until the early 2000s, however, there were no standardised tools capable of objectively measuring the effects of human activities—such as discharges, dredging, coastal works, or aquaculture—on seabed ecosystems.
The scientific challenge was to create a robust system, applicable across different habitats and regions worldwide, capable of quantifying impacts and guiding corrective measures.
AZTI developed AMBI (AZTI’s Marine Biotic Index) and its evolution M-AMBI (Multivariate-AMBI), pioneering tools for the ecological assessment of marine seabeds based on benthic macroinvertebrate communities.
The software, available at ambi.azti.es, includes a database of nearly 12,000 marine species and makes it possible to analyse the environmental impact generated by different human activities or to predict the effects of future projects, proposing appropriate measures to minimise those impacts.
AMBI has become an international reference, used by public administrations, energy, aquaculture and port companies, as well as environmental agencies worldwide, to comply with the requirements of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the European Marine Strategy (MSFD).