Variation in marine benthic community composition allows discrimination of multiple stressors ...
Predicting how communities respond to multiple, potentially interacting chemical stressors is inherently difficult because community structure and dynamics, the chemical properties of contaminants, and biological-chemical interactions vary with environmental conditions. Using a field experiment cond...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
2003
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://dx.doi.org/10.17615/hwxh-7j13 https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/concern/articles/mw22vf64f |
| Summary: | Predicting how communities respond to multiple, potentially interacting chemical stressors is inherently difficult because community structure and dynamics, the chemical properties of contaminants, and biological-chemical interactions vary with environmental conditions. Using a field experiment conducted in Antarctica, we tested whether 3 phyla of benthic soft-sediment marine invertebrates-annelids, arthropods, and echinoderms-respond differently to 2 common forms of contamination, organic enrichment and toxic contamination. Based on life history strategies and physiological tolerances to contaminants, we hypothesized that the principal responses of the 3 phyla would be: (1) enhanced abundance of annelids in organically enrichment sediments and (2) decreased abundance of arthropods and echinoderms in toxic metal contamination. Sediment treatments were established in the field experiment with an orthogonal combination of 3 levels of total organic carbon (TOC; 0, 1, and 2% by weight) and copper (Cu; 0, 100, ... |
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