Use of Marine Fouling Communities to Evaluate the Ecological Effects of Pollution

摘要

The ecological consequences of pollution were evaluated by measuring thebiological responses of marine fouling communities to increasing levels of pollution in San Diego Bay, California. Measurements of a gradient of increasing levels of copper and organotin compounds were made using anodic stripping voltammetry and inductively coupled plasma spectroscopy for copper and hydride derivation with atomic spectroscopy detection for the organotin compounds tributyltin (TBT), dibutyltin, and monobutyltin. The copper gradient increased by a factor of 4.2 and the TBT gradient increased by a factor of 8.75. Differences in community structures were correlated with distinctly higher concentrations of toxic chemicals present at locations along the gradient. A portable microcosm system was used to study the community responses to different concentrations of TBT in controlled environments. The microcosm study was inconclusive because there was very low settlement of fouling organisms in the microcosm tanks relative to their settlement and colonization in the bay.