Biology Reference
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are minimal in sediments in this same lake that are slightly or not contaminated, whereas
chironomid populations here are at their greatest.
In response to the European Water Framework Directive frame (EC 2000) on the use of
indices and benthic bioindicators to estimate the quality of coastal and estuarine waters,
various indices based on differences in sensitivity between species and species succession
along a gradient of organic pollution have been developed. Dauvin and Ruellet (2007) pro-
posed an index based on the ratio of the opportunist polychaetes to amphipods (benthic
opportunistic polychaetes/amphipods). Of use in regions of organic pollution, this index
can also be used in the case of pollution by hydrocarbons. Recently, this ratio has been
tested successfully by Andrade and Renaud (2011) along the Norwegian continental shelf
for offshore oil and gas impacts.
This differential sensitivity of organisms is also the basis of the “pollution-induced com-
munity tolerance” concept proposed by Blanck et al. (1988), developed and exemplified
by Tlili and Montuelle (in Amiard-Triquet et al. 2011) and Imfeld et al. (in Amiard-Triquet
et al. 2011) for microorganisms, but also demonstrated in several studies on periphyton
(Blank et al. 2003; Rotter et al. 2011) or nematodes (Millward and Grant 2000; Beyrem et al.
2010). Neira et al. (2011) examined Cu contamination effects on macrobenthic communities
(a)
100%
Sphaerodoridae
Ophelidae
Dorvilleidae
Nephtydae
Sabellidae
Lumbrineridae
Nereididae
Maldanidae
Cirratulidae
Cossuridae
Phyllodocidae
Capitellidae
Flabelligeridae
Orbinidae
Syllidae
Spionidae
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
High
Medium
Low
Ref
(b)
100%
Corophium
Grandidierella
Podocerus
Harpinia
Aoroides
Elasmopus
Ampithoe
Ampelisca
Caprella
Other Crustacea
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
High
Medium
Low
Ref
FIGURE 7.6
Percentage composition of polychaete families (a) and peracarid crustaceans (b) at different study sites.
(Reprinted from Marine Pollution Bulletin, 62, Macrobenthic community response to copper in Shelter Island
Yacht Basin, San Diego Bay, California, 701-717, Copyright 2011, with permission from Elsevier.)
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