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Supplementary Material (SM)

SM 1. List of species in Lesina Lagoon (Italy). The coverage of each species (mean value) is expressed as % of sampling surface. The species are grouped in Ecological Status Groups (ESG) sensu Orfanidis et al. (2011) and this study

Species / ESG / L01 / L02 / L03 / L04 / L05 / L07
Marine angiosperms (seagrasses)
Ruppia cirrhosa (Petagna) Grande / IA / 0.00 / 0.00 / 10.00 / 156.67 / 0.00 / 56.42
Zostera noltei Hornemann / IA / 0.00 / 0.00 / 20.00 / 0.00 / 70.46 / 0.00
Angiosperm
Stuckenia pectinata (L.) Börner / IIC / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 21.58
Chlorophyta
Acrochaete viridis (Reinke) R.Nielsen / IIB / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.01 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00
Chaetomorpha ligustica (Kützing) Kützing / IIB / 0.17 / 0.01 / 0.01 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00
Chaetomorpha linum (O.F.Müller) Kützing / IIB / 0.03 / 10.50 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00
Cladophora fracta (O.F.Müller ex Vahl) Kützing / IIB / 1.35 / 16.67 / 0.71 / 0.00 / 0.01 / 0.00
Cladophora vadorum (Areschoug) Kützing / IIB / 0.00 / 33.42 / 5.21 / 73.33 / 0.46 / 0.00
Oedogoniumsp. / IIB / 0.08 / 0.00 / 0.52 / 1.84 / 22.41 / 0.01
Ulva sp. / IIB / 0.10 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00
Rhodophyta
Acrochaetium sp. Nägeli in Nägeli & Cramer / IIB / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.02 / 0.04 / 0.00 / 0.00
Ceramium sp. / IIB / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.01 / 0.01 / 0.00 / 0.00
Chroodactylon ornatum (C.Agardh) Basson / IIB / 0.01 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00
Erythrotrichia carnea (Dillwyn) J.Agardh / IIB / 0.20 / 0.13 / 0.10 / 0.01 / 0.00 / 0.00
Gracilaria sp. / IIA / 21.33 / 3.51 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00
Lithophyllum sp. / IC / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.06 / 0.00
Lophosiphonia macra (Harvey) Falkenberg / IIB / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.16 / 0.01 / 0.00 / 0.84
Lophosiphonia obscura (C.Agardh)Falkenberg / IIB / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.21 / 0.45 / 0.01 / 0.00
Charophyta
Lamprothamnium papulosum (K.Wallroth) J.Groves / IA / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.82 / 0.46
Cyanobacteria / IIB / 0.01 / 0.09 / 0.02 / 0.13 / 0.01 / 0.01

SM 2. List of species in Varna Lake and Bay (Bulgaria). The wet biomass (g/m2) of each species (mean value) is presented. For more information see Table 3

Species / ESG / VL1 / VL2 / VL3 / VB4 / VB5
Marine angiosperm (seagrass)
Zostera noltei Hornemann / IA / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 97.26
Chlorophyta
Chaetomorpha aerea (Dillwyn) Kützing / IIB / 24.80 / 0.00 / 31.92 / 34.53 / 0.00
Cladophora laetevirens (Dillwyn) Kützing / IIB / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 59.95 / 0.00
Cladophora vagabunda(Linnaeus) Hoek / IIB / 389.20 / 156.80 / 574.76 / 126.02 / 101.14
Cladophora coelothrixKützing / IIB / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 149.85
Ulva compressa Linnaeus / IIB / 228.10 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00
Ulva flexuosa Wulfen / IIB / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 65.45 / 0.00
Ulva intestinalis Linnaeus / IIB / 191.60 / 94.87 / 0.00 / 98.48 / 0.00
Ulva linzaLinnaeus / IIB / 0.00 / 267.75 / 0.00 / 144.21 / 86.89
Ulva rigida C.Agardh / IIB / 0.00 / 146.35 / 542.98 / 182.54 / 312.90
Rhodophyta
Acrochaetium virgatulum (Harvey) Batters / IIB / 0.00 / 16.44 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00
Callithamnion corymbosum (Smith) Lyngbye / IIB / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 18.08 / 0.00
Ceramium diaphanum var.elegans (Roth) Roth / IIB / 0.00 / 93.24 / 0.00 / 46.00 / 28.08
Ceramium virgatum Roth / IIB / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 69.45 / 54.92
Gelidium crinale (Hare ex Turner) Gaillon / IA / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 146.03
Gelidium spinosum (S.G.Gmelin) P.C.Silva / IA / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 161.27 / 0.00
Goniotrichumelegans(Chauvin)Zanardini / IIB / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.34
Polysiphonia elongata (Hudson) Sprengel / IIB / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 50.26
Ochrophyta
Bacillariophyceae Haeckel / IIB / 10.00 / 0.00 / 9.90 / 0.00 / 0.00
Cystoseira spp. (includes C. barbata (Stackhouse) C.Agardh, C. crinita Duby) / IA / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 761.94

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SM 3.Spearman rank correlation coefficients (ρ) of key abiotic data and metrics. Underlined and bold values indicate significant differentiations (p<0.05).EnII=Environmental Integrative index; ESG=Ecological Status Group; EEI-c=Ecological Evaluation Index; EIEEI=Ecological Index

Depth
(m) / T(oC) / Salinity / O2 (%) / SDD / EnII / TC (%) / TDB (g/m2) / SR / ESG I (%) / ESG II (%) / EEI-c / EIEEI
Depth (m) / 1,00
T (oC) / -0,20 / 1,00
Salinity / 0,27 / 0,21 / 1,00
O2 (%) / -0,17 / -0,08 / 0,00 / 1,00
Secchi disc depth (cm)(SDD) / 0,99 / -0,10 / 0,24 / -0,18 / 1,00
EnII / -0,47 / -0,19 / -0,36 / -0,25 / -0,45 / 1,00
Total coverage (%) (TC) / 0,38 / -0,12 / -0,42 / 0,08 / 0,42 / -0,32 / 1,00
Total dry biomass (g/m2) (TDB) / 0,22 / -0,15 / -0,70 / 0,23 / 0,25 / -0,25 / 0,88 / 1,00
Species richness (per site) (SR) / 0,21 / 0,26 / 0,69 / 0,13 / 0,15 / -0,74 / -0,26 / -0,30 / 1,00
ESG I (%) / 0,31 / 0,08 / -0,09 / 0,20 / 0,30 / -0,85 / 0,62 / 0,64 / 0,48 / 1,00
ESG II (%) / 0,07 / -0,09 / -0,23 / -0,03 / 0,09 / 0,58 / 0,37 / 0,23 / -0,61 / -0,40 / 1,00
EEI-c / 0,28 / 0,07 / 0,27 / 0,08 / 0,24 / -0,91 / 0,17 / 0,14 / 0,70 / 0,80 / -0,78 / 1,00
EIEEI / 0,31 / 0,25 / 0,02 / -0,02 / 0,30 / -0,85 / 0,24 / 0,31 / 0,56 / 0,82 / -0,73 / 0,91 / 1,00