title: Effects of mariculture on macrobenthic assemblages in a Western Mediterranean site.
abstract: The effects of solid organic wastes from a marine fish farm on sediment was tested using macrobenthic fauna as biological indicators. Impact on benthic fauna was evaluated in the vicinity of a fish farm in the Tyrrhenian Sea (Western Mediterranean) between July 2001 and October 2002. Changes in benthic community structure were investigated using multivariate, distributional and univariate analyses (diversity indices, AMBI and M-AMBI). The results showed sharp disturbance of assemblages under the cages and no effects in the area more than 25 m from the cages. Sediment alterations were related to an increase in farmed biomass and its wastes, as well as to low current speed that allowed accumulation of organic matter on the sea floor. It was possible to follow the ecological succession from slightly altered assemblages to heavily polluted ones in the very short period of a single fish fattening cycle (15 months).
authors.affiliation: ISPRA (ex ICRAM), Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, Via di Casalotti 300, 00168 Rome, Italy. p.tomassetti@icram.org
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tomassetti
authors.forename: Emma
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Persia
authors.forename: Isabel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Mercatali
authors.forename: Danilo
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Vani
authors.forename: Veronica
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Marussso
authors.forename: Salvatore
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Porrello
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D005398:Fisheries; D007448:Invertebrates / Q000502:physiology*; D008522:Mediterranean Sea; D011156:Population Density; D012623:Seawater / Q000737:chemistry; D013997:Time Factors