| Summary: | Progress Code: completed Purpose To determine the effects of hydrocarbons on marine sediment meiofaunal communities in Antarctica. Sediment Recruitment Experiment 4 (SRE4) was a large, long term (5 year) field experiment run at Casey Station (from 2001 to 2006) testing the effects of 4 different hydrocarbons on marine sediment ecosystems. Four different types of hydrocarbons were individually mixed with defaunated marine sediments and deployed in trays on the seabed at O'Brien Bay-1. Trays were collected after deployment periods of 5 weeks, 56 weeks (one year), 62 weeks, 2 years and 5 years. In addition there was a bioturbation treatment using the burrowing urchin Abatus (at 56 weeks only). Samples were collected from 4 replicate trays of each treatment at each sampling time. Analyses were done of sediment hydrocarbon chemistry, microbial communities, meiofaunal communities, macrofaunal communities and diatom communities. The hydrocarbon treatments were: a synthetic Mobil lubricating oil; the same Mobil lubricating oil after 125 hours use in a vehicle engine; a Fuchs synthetic lubricating oil marketed as highly biodegradable; and Special Antarctic Blend diesel fuel (SAB). A control uncontaminated sediment treatment was used for comparison. A randomised block design was used with a tray of each treatment in 24 blocks (5 trays per block). Four blocks were sampled at each time (4 trays of each treatment). Meiofauna Two replicate cores were taken from each tray at each time. Copepods were identified to family. Nematodes were identified to genus. Data is from one, two and five years of the experiment. At one year there is only one replicate per tray for copepod data (a total of 4 replicates per treatment).
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