Skip Navigation


ICES Journal of Marine Science: Journal du Conseil Advance Access originally published online on July 18, 2008
ICES Journal of Marine Science: Journal du Conseil 2008 65(8):1428-1435; doi:10.1093/icesjms/fsn116
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
65/8/1428    most recent
fsn116v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Moreno, M.
Right arrow Articles by Fabiano, M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Moreno, M.
Right arrow Articles by Fabiano, M.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© 2008 International Council for the Exploration of the Sea. Published by Oxford Journals. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

This article appears in the following ICES Journal of Marine Science issue: Marine Environmental Indicators: Utility in Meeting Regulatory Needs [View the issue table of contents]

The use of meiofauna diversity as an indicator of pollution in harbours

Mariapaola Moreno1, Luigi Vezzulli2, Valentina Marin1, Paola Laconi1, Giancarlo Albertelli1 and Mauro Fabiano1

1 Department for the Study of Territory and Its Resources (DIPTERIS), University of Genoa, Corso Europa 26, 16132 Genoa, Italy
2 Department of Biology (DIBIO), University of Genoa, Viale Benedetto XV, 16132 Genova, Italy

Correspondence to M. Moreno: tel: +39 010 353 8069; fax: +39 010 353 8066; e-mail: moreno{at}dipteris.unige.it

Moreno, M., Vezzulli, L., Marin, V., Laconi, P., Albertelli, G., and Fabiano, M. 2008. The use of meiofauna diversity as an indicator of pollution in harbours. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 65: 1428–1435.

We assessed several meiofaunal indices in sediments of three Mediterranean harbours differing in environmental contamination to evaluate their usefulness as indicators of pollution and to identify those that best described environmental quality. In general, indicators based on meiofaunal taxa demonstrated a significant correlation with the concentration of contaminants, especially the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Nematode genus-based indicators correlated with contaminant concentrations at similar levels of significance, suggesting that a high taxonomic resolution does not improve the information content of meiofauna diversity indicators for assessing the environmental quality in these harbours. Notably, environmental variables that affect meiofaunal and nematode assemblages (e.g. water depth, grain size, and food sources) demonstrated a low spatial and temporal variability in the harbours investigated and did not represent important confounding factors. We conclude that the application of meiofaunal and nematode indices can be a useful tool for assessing the environmental quality of harbour ecosystems.

Keywords: environmental indicators, harbour, meiofauna, nematodes

Received 23 November 2007; accepted 13 May 2008; advance access publication 18 July 2008.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 ICES J. Mar. Sci.Home page
V. Marin, M. Moreno, P. Vassallo, L. Vezzulli, and M. Fabiano
Development of a multistep indicator-based approach (MIBA) for the assessment of environmental quality of harbours
ICES J. Mar. Sci., November 1, 2008; 65(8): 1436 - 1441.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.