Diagnostic Indicators of Biological Community: An Experimental Test in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica

摘要OPP-96-15849底栖无脊椎动物群落被广泛用于监测和评价海洋环境污染的生物影响，因为其固着的生活方式、寿命、功能多样性、众所周知的分类和生态意义使该系统成为印记生物后果的理想生态模板。底栖群落已被成功地用于环境评估，以使人信服，在大型动物无脊椎动物的科和门一级，污染的影响很容易被察觉。这种在高分类水平上检测污染影响的能力似乎是不同的类群以相反的方式对两类底栖生物群落--有机负荷和毒性--做出反应的结果。该项目旨在检验这样一种假设，即大型动物和/或小型动物个体门的丰度和生产量指数可以作为独立的诊断指标，以区分这两类不同海洋污染的典型混淆影响。PI将测试以下假设：环节动物蠕虫和线虫通过适度的有机负荷得到增强，节肢动物和棘皮动物优先通过适度暴露于有毒污染物(痕量金属)而受到抑制。第一种假设将在麦克默多站附近进行检验，因为1)相对稳定的环境使实验工作可以在海底进行，而不会受到干扰的影响；2)以前在该地点进行的底栖生物研究揭示了沉积物污染和底栖生物群落退化的严重混淆模式；3)寒冷极地海洋的自然生物修复速度低，这使得对污染影响的研究在高纬度地区尤为重要。第一个目标是在麦克默多站附近建立一个现场实验，在那里他们将操纵有机负荷并追踪定居托盘中沉积物中的Meta L浓度，以便通过析因设计(允许对因素之间的相互作用进行测试)来测试单独的类群是否对污染类别做出独立的反应。治疗还将包括大型活动捕食者的进入和社区发展的时间，以评估生态系统内的生物相互作用是否具有污染压力指数的诊断能力。其次，PIS将完成对所有关于污染对海洋无脊椎动物群落影响的现有数据集的严格审查和荟萃分析，以利用从监测排放、漏油和先前实验中获得的大量先前存在的信息来检验这一假说。结果具有很大的潜力，可以建立社区压力诊断指标，用于区分海洋污染的混乱原因，并在麦克默多站指导适当的管理反应

ABSTRACT OPP-96-15849 Communities of benthic invertebrates are widely used to monitor and evaluate biological impacts of pollution in the marine environment because their sessile life styles, longevity, functional diversity, well-known taxonomy and ecological significance render this system an ideal ecological template on which biological consequences are imprinted. Benthic communities have been used successfully in environmental assessments for convincing demonstrations that impacts of pollution are readily detectable at the level of family and phylum for macrofaunal invertebrates. This ability to detect pollution impacts at high taxonomic levels appears to be a consequence of different taxa responding to two classes of benthic communities, organic loading and toxicity, in opposite ways. This project is designed to test the hypothesis that indices of abundance and production for individual phyla of macrofauna and/or meiofauna can be used as independent diagnostics to tease apart the typically confounded impacts of these two separate classes of marine pollution. The PIs will test the hypothesis that annelid worms and nematodes are enhanced by modest organic loading and that arthropods and echinoderms are depressed preferentially by modest exposure to toxic contaminants (trace metals). The first hypothesis will be tested near McMurdo Station because of 1) its relatively constant environment allows experimental work to proceed on the seafloor without compromise by confounding disturbances; 2) previous benthic studies at this site have revealed significant confounded patterns of sediment contamination and benthic community degradation; and 3) low rates of natural bioremediation in cold polar oceans make study of pollution impacts especially critical at high latitudes. The first objective will be to establish a field experiment near McMurdo Station where they will manipulate organic loading and trace meta l concentration in sediments within colonization trays so as to test by factorial design (permitting tests of interactions between factors) whether the separate taxa respond independently to the classes of pollution. Treatments will also include access of larger mobile predators and time for community development so as to assess whether biological interactions within the ecosystem with the diagnostic capability of the indices of pollution stress. Second, the PIs will complete a rigorous review and meta-analysis of all available data sets on effects of pollution on marine invertebrate communities to test the hypothesis using the wealth of pre-existing information from monitoring discharges, oil spills, and previous experimentation. Results have great potential to allow the establishment of diagnostic indicators of community stress that can be used to separate confounded causes of causes of marine pollution and direct appropriate management responses at McMurdo Station