Document of bibliographic reference 368135

BibliographicReference record

Type

Bibliographic resource

Type of document

Journal article

BibLvlCode

AS

Title

Nematode community structures in the presence of wastewater treatment plant discharge

Abstract

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) represent major point sources of pollution in coastal systems, affecting benthic ecosystems. In the present study, we assessed the potential role that WWTPs have in shaping nematode communities and established baseline knowledge of free-living nematode community structures in St. Andrew Bay, Florida. Sediment samples were collected from four sites representing areas of WWTP outflow and areas with no apparent outflow, during the winter and summer. Nematode communities across sites were significantly different, and the differences were strongly associated with the distance to the nearest WWTP. While the communities were not different along transects at each site, nor across seasons, community dissimilarity across sites was high, implying strong contrasts throughout the bay system. Dominance of tolerant, opportunistic genera and Ecological Quality Status assessments suggest that the system is stressed by organic enrichment, possibly linked to the WWTPs. Our results suggest that knowledge on the life-history of dominant genera is imperative to assess the ecological quality of a benthic system, in addition to taxonomic and functional metrics. Considering the value of marine nematodes as bioindicators, more work should be done to monitor temporal variability in nematode communities in this system as future infrastructure changes alter its dynamics.

WebOfScience code

https://www.webofscience.com/wos/woscc/full-record/WOS:001035585100008

Bibliographic citation

Ridall, A.; Ingels, J. (2023). Nematode community structures in the presence of wastewater treatment plant discharge. Environ. Monit. Assess. 195(8): 991. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10661-023-11555-5

Topic

Fresh water

Is peer reviewed

true