Ecological Study of the Effects of Power Plants on Benthic Macroplant Microcosms in Subtropical and Tropical Estuaries. Annual Progress Report, 1977-1978

摘要

The major efforts have been to examine the effects of energy-related problems on nearshore environments in the subtropics and tropics of the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico regions of the United States and the Caribbean. Two fossil fuel and two nuclear plants were examined as the their effects on a nearshore seagrass community at Turkey Point in south Biscayne Bay, Dade County, Florida. The effects of heat toxicity, trace (heavy) metals and high salinities, the community processes and dynamics of nearshore subtropical and tropical seagrass ecosystems, and primary productivity and physiology of the dominant food chain organisms in these ecosystems have been studied in detail in both field and laboratory studies. A model for future prediction of pollutants emanating from energy-related resources and their effect on seagrass ecosystems has been included. (ERA citation 08:014655)