Experimental Investigation of the Influence of Diesel Fuel on the Food Webs of Two Sedimentary Communities/Direct and Indirect Effects of Diesel Fuel on Microphyto Benthos and Meiofauna in Saltmarsh Sediments

摘要

The influence of diesel fuel on benthic food webs in coastal salt marshes were examined in a series of microcosm experiments. Diesel contamination resulted in high mortality to all copepods except Cletocamptus deitersi, while nematode abundance increased. Blooms of benthic microalgae that developed in contaminated sediment were primarily a response to reduced copepod grazing, and secondarily a consequence of enhanced NH4+ flux from sediments. Microalgal grazing by nematodes and copepods was enhanced in contaminated sediments, and was a consequence of C. deitersi competition with copepods other than C. deitersi.