Bioindication and Statistical Methods in Assessing the State of Coastal Microalgae Communities in the Arctic and Mediterranean

A study of microalgae communities in habitats close to the continent/sea boundary was conducted. Methods of comparative floristics, statistics, and statistical mapping allowed us to characterize marginal communities as ecotones and to identify their main features. It was shown that alpha diversity increases in ecotones, regardless of whether it is a river or marginal lakes, the Arctic, the Black Sea, or the Mediterranean. Ecotone communities are also characterized by high individuality, richness in rare and protected species, and high intraspecies variability. It was also demonstrated that ecotone communities can be identified and characterized using statistics and bioindication.