A mesocosm experiment on the effects of hydrocarbon and copper pollution on a sublittoral soft-sediment meiobenthic community

Abstract

Meiofaunal assemblages in undisturbed box-core samples of sublittoral sediment were subjected to 4 dose levels of pollutants (copper and hydrocarbons) in a mesocosm experiment designed for the GEEP Workshop. Multivariate analyses of species abundance data for nematodes and copepods showed only marqnal differences in species composition between treatments at the end of the experiment, principally between the high-dose treatment and the others. Diversity profiles for the nematodes were virtually unaffected, but copepods showed a graded response of decreasing diversity with increasing dose level, both intrinsically and relative to the nematode diversity profiles. Changes in copepod diversity were brought about by disproportionate increases in abundance of certain species rather than selective losses, a situation which parallels the effects of particulate organic enrichment.