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EFFECTS OF DDT SEDIMENT-CONTAMINATION ON MACROFAUNAL COMMUNITY STRUCTURE AND COMPOSITION IN SAN FRANCISCO BAY
Citation:
Ferraro, S. AND F. Cole. EFFECTS OF DDT SEDIMENT-CONTAMINATION ON MACROFAUNAL COMMUNITY STRUCTURE AND COMPOSITION IN SAN FRANCISCO BAY. Marine Biology 130(2):323-334, (1997).
Description:
The objectives of this study were to determine the effects of sediment contamination on the benthic macrofauna and to predict macrofaunal changes following remediation at a Superfund (uncontrolled hazardous waste) site in San Francisco Bay, CA, USA. DDT and its metabolites (sumDDT) were the contaminants of concern. With few small-scale exceptions, all (>100) other sediment contaminants ever measured at the site were present at background or non-toxic levels. In hierachical regressions (Y=f(X1,X2,X3),where X1=sediment %silt+clay,X2=sediment total organic carbon (OC),and X3= log 10(sumDDT mug g-1 OC)) with data from samples collected at the study site, log10(sumDDT mug g-1 OC)explained a highly significant amount of the variance in the infaunal index (II) and log10(number of Amphipoda excluding Grandidierella japonica + 1) after statistically controlling for the potential effects of sediment %silt + clay and OC. The ratios of change of II and log10(number of Amphipoda excluding G.japonica+1)with respect to log10(sumDDT mug g-1 OC) were about-9:1 and-0.4:1, respectively. Most of the 92 species collected were present at low to moderate densities over the entire range of sumDDT sediment concentration's. The bivalve Theora lubrica,tubificids,most polychaetes,a tanaid abdita,Corophium heteroceratum,Photis brevipes,Dulichia rhabdoplastis),a phoronid(Phoronis of pallida),a bivalve(Cryptomya californica),and a cumacean(Eudorella pacifica),were rare or absent from sites with high sumDDT sediment-concentrations.