Skip to main content

IMIS

A new integrated search interface will become available in the next phase of marineinfo.org.
For the time being, please use IMIS to search available data

 

[ report an error in this record ]basket (0): add | show Print this page

Taxonomic level for assessing oil spill effects on soft-bottom sublittoral benthic communities
Gómez Gesteira, J.L.; Dauvin, J.-C.; Salvande Fraga, M. (2003). Taxonomic level for assessing oil spill effects on soft-bottom sublittoral benthic communities. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 46(5): 562-572. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0025-326X(03)00034-1
In: Marine Pollution Bulletin. Macmillan: London. ISSN 0025-326X; e-ISSN 1879-3363, more
Peer reviewed article  

Available in  Authors 

Keywords

Authors  Top 
  • Gómez Gesteira, J.L.
  • Dauvin, J.-C., more
  • Salvande Fraga, M.

Abstract
    Infralittoral soft-bottom macrofauna abundance data collected during four-year surveys after the Aegean Sea (Galicia, Spain) and the Amoco Cadiz oil spill (Brittany, France) at a total of seven sites were analysed at three different taxonomic levels (species, genus, and family). The effects of the spills on macrofauna populations were very similar in the two areas. The post-spill time-courses of Shannon–Weaver diversity values were similar regardless of whether species-, genus- or family-level data were used. Non-metric multidimensional scaling identified well-defined groups of samples corresponding to different times post-spill, and again the results obtained were very similar regardless of the taxonomic level considered. In general, the use of genus- or family-level data did not lead to relevant information loss by comparison with species-level data. In view of these findings and those of previous studies of this type, we conclude that family-level data is generally sufficient for monitoring pollution effects in infralittoral soft-bottom environments.

All data in the Integrated Marine Information System (IMIS) is subject to the VLIZ privacy policy Top | Authors