Organic carbon content of sediments as an indicator of stress in the marine benthos

Hyland, Jeffrey L.; Balthis, L; Karakassis, Ioannis; Magni, Paolo; Petrov, Alexei; Shine, James P.; Vestergaard, Ole; Warwick, R.M.

doi:10.3354/meps295091

Cited by 301 publications

(206 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…For example, the content of organic matter (Hyland et al 2005), abundance and composition of bacteria species (Uthicke and McGuire 2007) and microphytobenthos (Bell and Elmetri 1995;Gottschalk et al 2007) of sediments, as well as foraminifera (Cockey et al 1996;Uthicke and Nobes 2008), amphipods (Thomas 1993) and stomatopods (Risk et al 2001) are all potential bioindicators of changes in water quality. Indeed, some of these indicators have already been applied successfully in monitoring programmes e.g.…”

Section: Micro-and Meiobenthic Bioindicatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bioindicators of changes in water quality on coral reefs: review and recommendations for monitoring programmes

2009

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Effective environmental management requires monitoring programmes that provide specific links between changes in environmental conditions and ecosystem health. This article reviews the suitability of a range of bioindicators for use in monitoring programmes that link changes in water quality to changes in the condition of coral-reef ecosystems. From the literature, 21 candidate bioindicators were identified, whose responses to changes in water quality varied spatially and temporally; responses ranged from rapid (hours) changes within individual corals to long-term (years) changes in community composition. From this list, the most suitable bioindicators were identified by determining whether responses were (i) specific, (ii) monotonic, (iii) variable, (iv) practical and (v) ecologically relevant to management goals. For long-term monitoring programmes that aim to quantify the effects of chronic changes in water quality, 11 bioindicators were selected: symbiont photophysiology, colony brightness, tissue thickness and surface rugosity of massive corals, skeletal elemental and isotopic composition, abundance of macro-bioeroders, micro-and meiobenthic organisms such as foraminifera, coral recruitment, macroalgal cover, taxonomic richness of corals and the maximal depth of coralreef development. For short-term monitoring programmes, or environmental impact assessments that aim to quantify the effects of acute changes in water quality, a subset of seven of these bioindicators were selected, including partial mortality. Their choice will depend on the specific objectives and the timeframe available for each monitoring programme. An assessment framework is presented to assist in the selection of bioindicators to quantify the effects of changing water quality on coral-reef ecosystems.

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Section: Micro-and Meiobenthic Bioindicatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bioindicators of changes in water quality on coral reefs: review and recommendations for monitoring programmes

2009

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“…Although organic matter in surface sediments is an important food source for benthic fauna, excessive amounts of organic enrichment, often accompanied by other chemical stressors, may cause oxygen depletion and an increase in toxic by-products resulting in reduction in species richness, abundance and biomass of benthic fauna which are in close association with bottom sediments (Hyland et al, 2005). Data from Figure 2 and Table 6 clearly exhibited degrading EQS and decreasing species richness as TOC increased.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

“…When the remai- Table 6. Mean values of biotic variables and indexes, from merged dataset of Albayrak et al (2006; and this study, within TOC thresholds in accordance with Albayrak et al (2006), Hyland et al (2005) and Magni et al (2009) Mar. Sci., 13/2, 2012, 198-207 205 ning four stations (6, 7, 9 and 10) were considered, including at least eleven species/0.1 m 2 , it was seen that AMBI showed 75% while BENTIX, BOPA and BO2A showed 50% agreement with final assessment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Organic carbon content of sediment can be used as an indicator of pollution. Contamination concentrated at sediment will firstly and mostly affect benthic organisms that are living dependent on the sea bottom (Shine & Wallace, 2000;Venturini et al, 2004;Hyland et al, 2005). Macrofaunal communities and associated environmental variables, such as organic carbon of sediment, are important tools for detecting the health of coastal marine ecosystems (Magni, 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Assessment of ecological quality status of Küçükçekmece Bay (Marmara Sea) by applying BENTIX, AMBI, BOPA and BO2A biotic indexes

Çağlar

Albayrak

2012

Medit. Mar. Sci.

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This study was carried out to explore the effectiveness of different biotic indexes in the Marmara Sea. The assessment of ecological quality status (EQS) was performed by applying the biotic indexes BENTIX, AMBI, BOPA, BO2A and Shannon-Wiener diversity, in combination with the estimation of total organic carbon (TOC) content of sediments. BOPA and BO2A indexes tended to overestimate the EQS of the stations. BENTIX was the most efficient index as it demonstrated conceivable EQS results with respect to TOC load and successfuly determined "acceptable" or "not acceptable" status of the stations. TOC content of sediment, which significantly correlated with several benthic measures (S, N, AMBI, BENTIX), proved to be a valuable proxy measure in evaluating the likelihood of benthic impairment. When overall EQS of northern Marmara Sea was discussed, the region was designated as ecologically disturbed with only 25.7% of the stations in acceptable status.

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“…These systems are more likely to resist perturbation until a threshold is reached, above which serious changes are produced (Hyland et al, 2005).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A manipulative field experiment to evaluate an integrative methodology for assessing sediment pollution in estuarine ecosystems

Sanz‐Lázaro

Marín

2009

Science of The Total Environment

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The assessment of sediment contamination is of crucial importance for the management of estuarine ecosystems. Environmental risk assessment of oil pollution must be specific to these ecosystems because of their unique toxicant bioavailability dynamics, which is not comparable with that of other ecosystems where the environmental parameters are less variable. The goal of this work was to test in two European estuarine areas (Ria de Aveiro, Portugal; La Manga, Spain) whether the common methodology used to evaluate sediment pollution in marine sediment (amphipod toxicity tests and community structure analysis) is suited to these physico-chemically unique systems. Manipulative field experiments were conducted at three oil concentration levels, to compare resulting changes in community structure with laboratory and in situ amphipod toxicity tests carried out with native amphipod species Corophium multisetosum (Atlatic area) and Microdeutopus gryllotalpa (Mediterranean area).The impact of the toxicant was reflected in the community structure and toxicity tests, both of which were correlated with oil concentration. These results point to this methodology being a reliable tool for assessing and monitoring pollution in estuarine areas.

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Organic carbon content of sediments as an indicator of stress in the marine benthos

Cited by 301 publications

References 42 publications

Bioindicators of changes in water quality on coral reefs: review and recommendations for monitoring programmes

Bioindicators of changes in water quality on coral reefs: review and recommendations for monitoring programmes

Assessment of ecological quality status of Küçükçekmece Bay (Marmara Sea) by applying BENTIX, AMBI, BOPA and BO2A biotic indexes

A manipulative field experiment to evaluate an integrative methodology for assessing sediment pollution in estuarine ecosystems

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