Analysis of community attributes of the benthic meiofauna of Frierfjord/Langesundfjord

Abstract

Sublittoral meiofauna was sampled for the GEEP Workshop along a putative pollution gradient at 6 sites in FrierfjordlLangesundfjord, Norway. Data were subjected to mutivariate statistical analyses which discriminate between sites on their faunlstic attributes, and univariate measures of community stress were determined. Most mulhvariate techniques produced similar results. The copepod component of the meiofauna discriminated between sites better than the nematodes at the species level, but nematodes were more robust to analyses based on data aggregated to higher taxonomic levels. It is concluded that pollution monitoring at the community level using higher taxonomic groupings of meiofauna is viable, and renders such studies much less time-consuming and more cost-effective than more standard procedures. Appropriate taxonomic levels for the 2 major meiofaunal taxa (nematodes and copepods) and for the total meiofauna are discussed. There is a paucity of validated univariate measures of community perturbation available for use with meiofauna. Traditional diversity measures were rather uninformative, but the community at one site was identified as being adversely affected by pollution.

Changes in benthic community structure due to clam dredging on the Algarve coast and the importance of seasonal analysis

“…Moreover, many studies on meio-and macro-benthic disturbance have shown that very little information is lost by working at a taxonomic level higher than species (e.g. family or even phylum; see Heip et al, 1988;Herman & Heip, 1988;Warwick, 1988; Seasonal analysis for short-term impact studies F. Alves et al 4180.3 Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom (2003) Figure 2. Representative view of a Portuguese clam dredge (according to Monteiro, 1985).…”

Soft sediment meiofaunal community structure in relation to a long-term heavy metal gradient in the Fal estuary system

“…These include their small size and high densities, so that smaller samples may be collected, shorter generation times and no planktonic phase in their life cycles, suggesting a potentially shorter response time and higher sensitivity to anthropogenic disturbance (Heip et al 1988, Warwick 1993. Heavy metals are an important component in many marine discharges, including sewage, industrial wastes and mining wastes (Bryan 1976).…”

Detection of initial effects of pollution on marine benthos: an example from the Ekofisk and Eldfisk oilfields, North Sea

“…Newer methods have been suggested such as the distribution of individuals among species (Gray & Pearson 1982), and species abundance : biomass comparisons (ABC) (Warwick 1986), but only a few comparative studies have been done (Gray et al 1988, Heip et al 1988, Warwick 1988). Here we O Inter-Research/Printed in F. R. Germany explore use of a variety of techniques and compare these with multivariate analyses.…”