Grantee Research Project Results
1999 Progress Report: Foraminifera as Ecosystem Indicators: Phase 1. A Marine Benthic Perturbation Index; Phase 2. Bioassay Protocols
EPA Grant Number: R825869Title: Foraminifera as Ecosystem Indicators: Phase 1. A Marine Benthic Perturbation Index; Phase 2. Bioassay Protocols
Investigators: Muller, Pamela Hallock
Institution: University of South Florida
EPA Project Officer: Packard, Benjamin H
Project Period: October 1, 1997 through September 30, 2002
Project Period Covered by this Report: October 1, 1998 through September 30, 1999
Project Amount: $295,043
RFA: Ecosystem Indicators (1997) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Ecological Indicators/Assessment/Restoration , Aquatic Ecosystems
Objective:
Foraminifera are the most useful paleoenvironmental indicators utilized by geoscientists because: (1) their shells are important sediment constituents; (2) they are small and widely abundant; (3) different taxa have evolved to exploit most environments, substrates, and nutritional modes in marine systems; and (4) their shells morphologically and geochemically record environmental conditions. This project is developing techniques and protocols for the routine use of foraminifera as indicators of biological integrity in field and laboratory settings. In Phase 1, we are developing and testing an index for assessing perturbations of marine benthic ecosystems, which is based on changes in key taxa of foraminifera. The index will provide a tool for assessing how benthic communities have changed under human influence as compared to the natural variability in pre-anthropogenic times or in unaffected areas. In Phase 2, we are developing bioassay protocols for foraminifera in laboratory studies of the effects of key stressors in coral-reef environments.
Progress Summary:
Phase 1. We have developed a prototype index to quantify change in benthic ecosystems. This prototype index can be applied to historical, sediment-core, and surface-sediment data sets. The procedure requires minimal technology and can be performed by technicians with modest training. The model ranks relative abundances of key foraminiferal taxa and morphogroups and total abundances, generating an index value when foraminiferal assemblages are compared temporally or spatially. The model can be adapted to local and regional biotas and can incorporate other environmental or taxonomic data that can be scaled to the model.
The index has been tested on published data from surface sediments from an onshore-offshore traverse in the upper Florida Keys. To further field test the utility of the foraminiferal record in detecting recent change, short sediment cores have been collected from the same Florida Keys traverse for comparison with results from surface sediments collected over several decades. Analyses of the sediment constituents and foraminiferal assemblages in selected cores from off Key Largo, Long Key, Big Pine Key, and Key West is nearing completion. In addition, sediment cores from Hillsborough Bay, the most impacted part of Tampa Bay, FL, have been analyzed. Data from these cores are being used to test and further develop the utility of the proposed index in a more temperate, estuarine, highly impacted setting.
Phase 2. Amphistegina spp. are the most common reef-dwelling foraminifera with algal endosymbionts worldwide. Besides being globally important in their own right, these foraminifera can provide a model "calcifying symbiosis" for testing stressors that threaten the ecological integrity of coral-reef ecosystems. Known stressors include temperature shock, salinity change, and slight increases in ultraviolet (UV)-B radiation. Protocols in use include visual, physiological, and cytological responses for routine experimentation using these protists.
From 1998 to 1999, protocols for measuring ATP (adenosine 5'-triphosphate) as a means to determine viability and metabolic activities were adapted for application to A. gibbosa, for comparison with visual and cytological assessments. The range of "normality" has been established using visually normal field-collected specimens and laboratory-raised clones. ATP concentrations in visually stressed field-collected specimens were compared against these baseline ATP concentrations for field collections. A series of laboratory experiments also were conducted to test visual, cytological, and ATP differences in responses to temperature, light intensity, and salinity, also comparing response differences between field-collected and laboratory-raised foraminifera. Specimens from the same field collections and laboratory experiments also are being analyzed cytologically to quantify numbers of symbionts, digestion of symbionts, proportions and kinds of vacuoles, and presence or absence of organelles.
Future Activities:
For Phase 1, sediment core samples from Tampa Bay and the Florida Keys have been analyzed. Over the next year, this phase of the project will contribute to one dissertation and one Master's thesis, and generate three publications?one on the Tampa Bay cores, one on the Florida Keys cores, and a synthesis paper presenting the index and its applicability to our data and data sets from the literature.
For Phase 2, cytological and ATP protocols have been used to assess field and laboratory responses of A. gibbosa to suites of intensities of photosynthetically active radiation, UVA, and UVB. This work is being analyzed and written up. Further experiments will be conducted to test synergistic responses to temperature and UVB radiation. The applicability of an Integrated Molecular Biomarker System to foraminiferal research also will be tested. Over the year, this phase of the project will contribute to two dissertations and should generate at least three publications?one on the ATP analysis techniques, one on cytological results, and one on growth and mottling responses to light regimes.
Journal Articles on this Report : 2 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
Other project views: | All 62 publications | 14 publications in selected types | All 10 journal articles |
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Type | Citation | ||
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Fujita K, Hallock P. A comparison of phytal substrate preferences of Archaias angulatus and Sorites orbiculus in mixed macroalgal-seagrass beds in Florida Bay. Journal of Foraminiferal Research 1999;29(2):143-151. |
R825869 (1999) R825869 (2000) R825869 (2001) R825869 (Final) |
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Hallock P. Symbiont-bearing foraminifera: harbingers of global change. Micropaleontology 2000;46(Suppl 1):95-104. |
R825869 (1999) R825869 (2000) R825869 (2001) R825869 (Final) |
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Supplemental Keywords:
marine, estuary, coral reefs, indicators, Florida Keys, Tampa Bay, adenosine 5'-triphosphate analysis, ATP analysis, ecological effects, stressors, cytology., RFA, Scientific Discipline, Ecosystem Protection/Environmental Exposure & Risk, Hydrology, Ecology, exploratory research environmental biology, Environmental Chemistry, Ecosystem/Assessment/Indicators, Ecosystem Protection, Ecological Effects - Environmental Exposure & Risk, Ecological Indicators, anthropogenic stresses, foraminifera, marine ecosystem, ecological exposure, coral reefs, stressors, algae, benthic biota, soil, ecosystem indicators, aquatic ecosystemsRelevant Websites:
http://www.marine.usf.edu/reefslab
Progress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.