Successful Discrimination Using Otolith Microchemistry Among Samplesof Red Snapper Lutjanus campechanus from Artificial Reefs and Samplesof L.campechanus Taken from Nearby Oil and Gas Platforms

摘要

A total of 98 Lutjanus campechanus otoliths were analyzed by ICPMS from collections made from both artificialreefs and oil and gas platforms in Alabama and Louisiana over a two-year period from 2002 to 2003. The 15 stableisotopes analyzed in this study were 51V, 59Co, 62Ni , 64Zn, 66Zn, 65Cu, 107Ag, 109Ag, 110Cd, 111Cd, 114Cd, 206Pb, 207Pb, 208Pband 238U. This suite of elements was chosen because they were most likely to be present at oil and gas platforms in themetals and other materials used in artificial reefs, and in the circulating heavy “muds” used while drilling wells. A seriesof statistical analyses were performed to establish the statistical structure of the data. Linear and stepwise discriminantanalyses were performed to show that by using subsets of all the elements measured, it was possible to discriminateamong artificial reefs and oil and gas platforms at average misclassification rates of the order of 10%.