Taxonomic level for assessing oil spill effects on soft-bottom sublittoral benthic communities

doi:10.1016/S0025-326X(03)00034-1

Marine Pollution Bulletin

Volume 46, Issue 5, May 2003, Pages 562-572

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0025-326X(03)00034-1 Get rights and content

Abstract

Infralittoral soft-bottom macrofauna abundance data collected during four-year surveys after the Aegean Sea (Galicia, Spain) and the Amoco Cadiz oil spill (Brittany, France) at a total of seven sites were analysed at three different taxonomic levels (species, genus, and family). The effects of the spills on macrofauna populations were very similar in the two areas. The post-spill time-courses of Shannon–Weaver diversity values were similar regardless of whether species-, genus- or family-level data were used. Non-metric multidimensional scaling identified well-defined groups of samples corresponding to different times post-spill, and again the results obtained were very similar regardless of the taxonomic level considered. In general, the use of genus- or family-level data did not lead to relevant information loss by comparison with species-level data. In view of these findings and those of previous studies of this type, we conclude that family-level data is generally sufficient for monitoring pollution effects in infralittoral soft-bottom environments.

Introduction

Benthic communities are sensitive to oil spills, but the effects of oil pollution strongly depend on the proportion of hydrocarbon-sensitive species, especially crustaceans, in the affected community (see Dauvin, 1998, Dauvin, 2000). Some species, such as Ampelisca and other amphipods, can be considered as good indicators of oil pollution; by contrast, polychaetes appear to be resistant to high levels of hydrocarbons in sediment (Gomez Gesteira and Dauvin, 2000). These authors propose the use a polychaetes/amphipods ratio to reflect temporal changes in the soft-bottom macrobenthos, analogous to the nematodes/copepods ratio previously suggested for the meiobenthos. The polychaetes/amphipods ratio requires only family-level identification of polychaetes, since the characteristic opportunistic polychaete response to increased organic matter is generally detectable as family-level increases in the abundance of Capitellidae, Cirratulidae, Spionidae and/or Eunicidae (Gomez Gesteira and Dauvin, 2000).

After an oil spill, the objectives of monitoring studies are usually: (i) to identify the short-term effects of the hydrocarbons (categories of organism affected by the spill, and estimation of mortalities; i.e. the “resistance” of the community), and (ii) to evaluate the time required for decontamination of the sediment and organisms, and for recovery of pre-spill population levels (i.e., the “resilience” of the community). In several cases, the time required for recovery of pre-spill population levels has 10 years (see Dauvin, 1998 and Gomez Gesteira, 2001 for reviews). In contrast, some communities, such as the fine-sand Abra alba community of the Bay of Morlaix, have shown very high resiliences: 15 years after the Amoco Cadiz spill the Ampelisca populations which initially disappeared showed complete recovery. In such surveys, several authors have recommended the identification of organisms to species-level, in view of the information offered by such an approach (species richness, species appearance and disappearance, comparative investigations at the mesoscale, etc.).

The effects of the 1992 Aegean Sea spill on the infralittoral muddy-sand macrobenthic communities of the Ares and Betanzos Ria in Galicia (Spain) were monitored in detail over a four-year period (1992–1996) (Mora et al., 1996a, Mora et al., 1996b; Gomez Gesteira, 2001). These studies revealed strong similarities with the impact of the Amoco Cadiz spill on the infralittoral communities of the Bay of Morlaix (Western English Channel). The comparison of these two spills has revealed general patterns in the effects of oil on soft-bottom macrobenthic species and populations (Gomez Gesteira and Dauvin, 2000).

The aim of this paper is to investigate which taxonomic level (species, genus or family) corresponding to the ‘taxonomic sufficiency’ (TS) (Ellis, 1985) is sufficient to detect different post-spill trends in soft-bottom benthic assemblages from the Ares and Betanzos Ria in Galicia (Spain) and the Bay of Morlaix in Brittany (France).

Section snippets

Study areas and oil spills

The main characteristics of the study areas, the sampling design, and the oil spills are described in detail in Gomez Gesteira and Dauvin (2000); in what follows we provide only a summary.

Ares and Betanzos Ria

Five sites were sampled in infralittoral muddy-sand macrobenthic areas of the Ares and Betanzos Ria. Two of these sites (<10 m depth) are located in the inner part of the ria, in muddy Abra-alba communities near a freshwater input: site K (43°21.92^′N; 8°13.92^′W) and site T (43°25.7^′N; 8°12.8^′W). The three

Taxonomic structure of communities

Table 1 shows the number of taxa at different taxonomic levels from phylum to species, for each of the seven sites after pooling all samples collected over the corresponding four-year periods. Three phyla (Annelida, Arthropoda and Mollusca), contained most of the species, genera and families. A sharp discontinuity in number of taxa is apparent when the order level is considered rather than the family- or genus-level. At the five Galician sites the number of species was in all cases very similar

Discussion

Gomez Gesteira and Dauvin (2000) compared the effects of oil spills on infralittoral soft-bottom communities in the Bay of Morlaix (western English Channel, polluted by the Amoco Cadiz spill in 1978), and from the Ares and Betanzos Ria (north-western Iberian Peninsula, polluted by the Aegean Sea spill in 1992). The pre-spill communities showed similar biological characteristics in the two regions. The effects of the spills were very similar in the two regions, notably (i) the disappearance of

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Taxonomic level for assessing oil spill effects on soft-bottom sublittoral benthic communities

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Study areas and oil spills

Ares and Betanzos Ria

Taxonomic structure of communities

Discussion

Marine Pollution Bulletin

Marine Pollution Bulletin

Marine Pollution Bulletin

Marine Pollution Bulletin

Marine Pollution Bulletin

Marine Pollution Bulletin

Water Research

Water Research

Water Science Technology

Marine Pollution Bulletin

Environmental Pollution

Biological Conservation

Marine Pollution Bulletin

Marine Environmental Research

Analysis of marine macrobenthic community structure in relation to pollution, natural oil seepage and seasonal disturbance in a tropical environment (Trinidad, West Indies)

Marine Ecology Progress Series

Discrimination between disturbed coastal ecosystems by using macrobenthos at different taxonomic levels

Boletı́n del Instituto Español de Oceanografı́a

Variabilité temporelle de la diversité des peuplements de sédiments fins de la baie de Morlaix

Océanis

Taxonomic level and sample size sufficient for assessing pollution impacts on the Southern California Bight macrobenthos

Marine Ecology Progress Series

Taxonomic level sufficient for asses

Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences

Taxonomic level sufficient for assessing pollution impacts on the Southern California Bight macrobenthos––revisited

Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry