Ports can be regarded as “Heavily Modified Water Bodies” since their waters and sediments cannot achieve the Good Environmental Status (GES) as required by the Marine Strategy Framework Directive. These areas are in fact prone to the accumulation of noticeable amounts of contaminants (metals, hydrocarbons, pesticides, etc.) due to the presence of several productive and industrial activities settled in the surroundings. At the same time this aspect makes the commercial ports as key-areas for studying the long-term effects of chronic contaminantion on marine biota and, in case, for detecting any kind of adaptation. In order to shed light on the issue, free-living nematodes were selected as a target assemblage to analyse in three commercial ports of the Adriatic Sea (Trieste, Ancona and Koper). This choice was made according to the high tolerance of some nematode genera to contamination, which ensures the presence of living specimens even in very polluted conditions. In each port, free-living nematodes were investigated in terms of abundance, genera composition, diversity and functional traits. Overall, the sediments of all sampling sites were inhabited mainly by colonizers. The port of Trieste was characterised by the highest level of biodiversity notwithstanding the overall higher contamination level, suggesting a possible adaptation of the nematodes to the long-standing contamination. Total Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (ΣPAH) were the main environmental variable that influenced the nematode assemblages, followed by Total Organic Carbon (TOC) content and the sediment grain-size. A recalibration and implementation of the indicator genera lists were carried out specifically for such heavily modified environments by means of a co-occurrence analysis that allowed to identify which genera cohesively respond to site-specific conditions. Furthermore, we defined some simple guidelines for the use of the most common indices applied to nematodes (i.e. Maturity Index, Index of Trophic Diversity, Shannon index) in order to encourage the use of these organisms as biological indicators for the environmental quality assessment of large commercial ports.

How can different taxonomic structure and functional traits of nematodes reflect different human pressures in “Heavily Modified Water Bodies”?

Grassi E.;Balsamo M.;Catani L.;Semprucci F
2022

Abstract

Ports can be regarded as “Heavily Modified Water Bodies” since their waters and sediments cannot achieve the Good Environmental Status (GES) as required by the Marine Strategy Framework Directive. These areas are in fact prone to the accumulation of noticeable amounts of contaminants (metals, hydrocarbons, pesticides, etc.) due to the presence of several productive and industrial activities settled in the surroundings. At the same time this aspect makes the commercial ports as key-areas for studying the long-term effects of chronic contaminantion on marine biota and, in case, for detecting any kind of adaptation. In order to shed light on the issue, free-living nematodes were selected as a target assemblage to analyse in three commercial ports of the Adriatic Sea (Trieste, Ancona and Koper). This choice was made according to the high tolerance of some nematode genera to contamination, which ensures the presence of living specimens even in very polluted conditions. In each port, free-living nematodes were investigated in terms of abundance, genera composition, diversity and functional traits. Overall, the sediments of all sampling sites were inhabited mainly by colonizers. The port of Trieste was characterised by the highest level of biodiversity notwithstanding the overall higher contamination level, suggesting a possible adaptation of the nematodes to the long-standing contamination. Total Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (ΣPAH) were the main environmental variable that influenced the nematode assemblages, followed by Total Organic Carbon (TOC) content and the sediment grain-size. A recalibration and implementation of the indicator genera lists were carried out specifically for such heavily modified environments by means of a co-occurrence analysis that allowed to identify which genera cohesively respond to site-specific conditions. Furthermore, we defined some simple guidelines for the use of the most common indices applied to nematodes (i.e. Maturity Index, Index of Trophic Diversity, Shannon index) in order to encourage the use of these organisms as biological indicators for the environmental quality assessment of large commercial ports.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11576/2750391
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