Linking chemical contamination to biological effects in coastal pollution monitoring

Abstract

To establish the connection between pollutant levels and their harmful effects on living resources, coastal monitoring programmes have incorporated biological tools, such as the scope for growth (SFG) in marine mussels and benthic macrofauna community indices. Although the relation between oxygen-depleting anthropogenic inputs and the alteration of benthic communities is well described, the effects of chemical pollutants are unknown because they are not expected to favour any particular taxa. In this study, the combined efforts of five research teams involved in the investigative monitoring of marine pollution allowed the generation of a multiyear data set for Ría de Vigo (NW Iberian Peninsula). Multivariate analysis of these data allowed the identification of the chemical-matrix combinations responsible for most of the variability among sites and the construction of a chemical pollution index (CPI) that significantly (P < 0.01) correlated with biological effects at both the individual and the community levels. We report a consistent reduction in the physiological fitness of local populations of mussels as chemical pollution increases. The energy balance was more sensitive to pollution than individual physiological rates, but the reduction in the SFG was primarily due to significantly decreased clearance rates. We also found a decrease in benthic macrofauna diversity as chemical pollution increases. This diversity reduction resulted not from altered evenness, as the classic paradigm might suggest, but from a loss of species richness.

Influence of mussel biological variability on pollution biomarkers

“…According with Beiras et al (2012), only those chemical showing loading 40.7 were consider in the CPI calculation. Quality criterion used were OSPAR BAC (OSPAR Commission, 2010b) for Cd, Hg, Pb, PCBs and HCHs, the environmental quality standard (EQS) in biota proposed by the European Commission was used for BDEs (OSPAR Commission, 2012b), and the Norwegian level I (Green et al, 2012) for DDT, benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) and the rest of metals analyzed (Cu, Zn and As).…”

“…According to Beiras et al (2012) only those chemicals showing loadings 4 0.7 in the PCA were selected to calculate the CPI, namely: Cu, Zn, Cd, As, Pb, BDEs, PCBs, DDTs, HCHs, chlordanes and B(a)P. Fig. 2 shows CPI values calculated for each sampling site, which takes positive values when pollutants exceed on average Table 3 Student's test for biological parameters of mussels (M. galloprovincialis) from the two geographical areas (Atlantic and Cantabrian coasts).…”

“…Ingestion is directly obtained from CR and is the component of the energy budget most affected by pollution (Beiras et al, 2012;Howell et al, 1984;Toro et al, 2003). Clearance rates are usually standardized to mussel size, not only for comparative purposes with literature, but also for the inevitable slight differences in individual size between sampling sites.…”

Management Strategies to Limit the Impact of Bottom Trawling on VMEs in the High Seas of the SW Atlantic

“…Nitric acid digestion was applied for mercury analysis. Quantification was carried out by atomic absorption spectrometry (flame, graphite furnace and cold vapour) (Beiras et al, 2011). Thirteen individual PAHs were measured following the method described by Viñas et al (2002).…”

Use of whole mussels and mussel gills in metal pollution biomonitoring

“…Sampling was performed during an investigative monitoring of marine pollution in Ría de Vigo (Galicia, NW Spain), which included 4 sampling campaigns, in March and October 2004, March 2005, and April 2006(Beiras et al 2012. Sampling was performed at 7 sites (Fig.…”