The status of aquatic ecosystems has historically been monitored by the use of biotic indices. However, few biotic measures consider the presence of non-indigenous species as a sign of anthropogenic pollution and habitat disturbance even when this may seriously affect the metric scores and ecological status classifications of an environment. Today, biological invasions are currently one of the greatest threats to biodiversity and sustainable blue economies around the world. In this work, environmental assessments were conducted in the Port of Gijon, Northern Spain, using eDNA metabarcoding, and the gAMBI (genetics based AZTI Marine Biotic Index) was estimated. Results indicate a high/good ecological status within the port. However, nine non-indigenous species and five invasive species were found, and a modification of the gAMBI that includes species invasiveness was proposed: Blue-gNIS. The index was preliminary tested against existing validated indices such as gAMBI, BENTIX (based on the ecology of macroinvertebrates) and ALEX (based on the invasiveness of the species). Blue-gNIS classified the port in a good ecological status and showed its potential usefulness to achieve more complete water quality assessments of ports.

历史上一直通过使用生物指标来监测水生生态系统的状况。然而，很少有生物措施将非土著物种的存在视为人为污染和栖息地干扰的标志，即使这可能会严重影响环境的指标得分和生态状况分类。今天，生物入侵目前是对全球生物多样性和可持续蓝色经济的最大威胁之一。在这项工作中，使用eDNA元条形码在西班牙北部的希洪港进行了环境评估，并估算了gAMBI（基于遗传的AZTI海洋生物指数）。结果表明港口内的生态状况良好/良好。但是，发现了9种非本土物种和5种入侵物种，有人提出了对gAMBI的修改，其中包括物种入侵性：Blue-gNIS。该指数已针对现有的经过验证的指数进行了初步测试，例如gAMBI，BENTIX（基于无脊椎动物的生态学）和ALEX（基于物种的入侵性）。Blue-gNIS将港口归类为良好的生态状况，并显示出其潜在的用途，以进行更完整的港口水质评估。