Statistical Calibration and discussion of the Carlit index in the Pontine Islands

The WFD, adopted by the European Community requires that Member States achieve and maintain a good ecological status of all water bodies by 2015. In the marine context, the ecological status has to be quantified applying indexes based on appropriate key biological elements. The CARLIT index is a cartographic monitoring tool enabling the Environmental Quality Rank to be calculated using macroalgae in coastal hard bottoms as a key biological element. Here we investigate the role of Cystoseira amentacea var.stricta: a key macroalgae involved in the index definition. We analyze the relation between the algae presence and geomorphological characteristics of Pontine Islands coast through standard logistic regression and autologistc models to account for spatial correlation.