A Trawl Disturbance Indicator to quantify large scale fishing impact on benthic ecosystems

▸ Proposal of an indicator of the benthic community health to assess trawling disturbance. ▸ This indicator is based on the composition of biological traits of epifauna. ▸ Epifauna was surveyed at 6 soft-bottom sites over the Spanish Mediterranean coast. ▸ The biological traits significantly reflected the ecosystem disturbance. ▸ A Trawl Disturbance Index (TDI) was proposed as a tool for fisheries managers.