Shallow sublittoral meiofauna communities and sediment polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) content on the Galician coast (NW Spain), six months after the Prestige oil spill.
The aim of this work was to detect the impact of Prestige oil spill on meiobenthic community structure at higher levels of taxonomic aggregation. In addition, the relationship between sediment individual polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) concentration and meiofauna community structure was investigated. Six months after the Prestige oil spill, meiobenthos community and sediment PAHs content from seven shallow subtidal localities along the Galician coast were studied. Two sites presented differences in community structure, characterized by high densities of nematodes, gastrotrichs and turbellarians, and low densities of copepods. Chrysene and triphenylene were only found at these two disturbed sites and could be responsible for differences of meiobenthos community structure. However, differences in community structure of sites could be linked with sedimentary parameters, and discrimination between the effect of PAHs and sedimentary parameters was impossible due to the lack of baseline studies on meiobenthos and PAHs contents in this area.
Veiga
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P
Departamento de Zooloxía e Antropoloxía Física, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Facultade de Veterinaria, Avd. Carballo Calero s/n, 27002 Lugo, Spain.
Rubal
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M
Besteiro
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C
D000818:Animals; D001267:Atlantic Ocean; D044822:Biodiversity; D004190:Disasters; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000737:chemistry*; D007448:Invertebrates / Q000502:physiology*; D010578:Petroleum; D011084:Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons / Q000032:analysis*; D011156:Population Density; D013030:Spain; D013997:Time Factors; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*
D010578:Petroleum; D011084:Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical