Benthic prey quantity and quality in the main mudflat feeding areas of the Tagus Estuary: Implications for bird and fish populations
Estuaries are among the most productive environments in the coastal zone that may act as sink of pollutants. In this study we evaluated how levels of heavy metal contamination can be reflected in the macroinvertebrate communities of six Tagus Estuary mudflats, inferring their consequences to upper...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Universidad Autónoma de Baja California
2008-09-01
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| Series: | Ciencias Marinas |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.cienciasmarinas.com.mx/index.php/cmarinas/article/view/1392 |
| _version_ | 1827330962000707584 |
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| author | I Cardoso JP Granadeiro H Cabral |
| author_facet | I Cardoso JP Granadeiro H Cabral |
| author_sort | I Cardoso |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
Estuaries are among the most productive environments in the coastal zone that may act as sink of pollutants. In this study we evaluated how levels of heavy metal contamination can be reflected in the macroinvertebrate communities of six Tagus Estuary mudflats, inferring their consequences to upper trophic levels. We used Shannon-Wiener’s diversity, Pielou’s evenness and Simpson’s dominance indices, and macroinvertebrate densities to characterize benthic communities at the sites that presented different metal contamination loads. Those stations with high levels of contamination presented a lower diversity but also the highest prey density. This study indicated that unhealthy areas can still perform their ecosystem function with costs that remain to be evaluated. The biodiversity can be impoverished compared with other less contaminated sites, but with regard to their utilization as feeding areas by birds and fishes this is not a limiting factor. For this particular function of the mudflats, prey availability is the main characteristic determining the choice of one particular site as a bird and fish feeding area that may not be affected by heavy metal contamination.
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| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T16:26:06Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d8882530bca040cb87632d679799e541 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0185-3880 2395-9053 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T16:26:06Z |
| publishDate | 2008-09-01 |
| publisher | Universidad Autónoma de Baja California |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Ciencias Marinas |
| spelling | doaj.art-d8882530bca040cb87632d679799e5412024-03-03T18:16:13ZengUniversidad Autónoma de Baja CaliforniaCiencias Marinas0185-38802395-90532008-09-0134310.7773/cm.v34i3.1392Benthic prey quantity and quality in the main mudflat feeding areas of the Tagus Estuary: Implications for bird and fish populationsI Cardoso0JP Granadeiro1H Cabral2Universidade de LisboaUniversidade de LisboaUniversidade de Lisboa Estuaries are among the most productive environments in the coastal zone that may act as sink of pollutants. In this study we evaluated how levels of heavy metal contamination can be reflected in the macroinvertebrate communities of six Tagus Estuary mudflats, inferring their consequences to upper trophic levels. We used Shannon-Wiener’s diversity, Pielou’s evenness and Simpson’s dominance indices, and macroinvertebrate densities to characterize benthic communities at the sites that presented different metal contamination loads. Those stations with high levels of contamination presented a lower diversity but also the highest prey density. This study indicated that unhealthy areas can still perform their ecosystem function with costs that remain to be evaluated. The biodiversity can be impoverished compared with other less contaminated sites, but with regard to their utilization as feeding areas by birds and fishes this is not a limiting factor. For this particular function of the mudflats, prey availability is the main characteristic determining the choice of one particular site as a bird and fish feeding area that may not be affected by heavy metal contamination. https://www.cienciasmarinas.com.mx/index.php/cmarinas/article/view/1392contaminationheavy metalsmacrobenthic communitymudflatsTagus Estuary |
| spellingShingle | I Cardoso JP Granadeiro H Cabral Benthic prey quantity and quality in the main mudflat feeding areas of the Tagus Estuary: Implications for bird and fish populations Ciencias Marinas contamination heavy metals macrobenthic community mudflats Tagus Estuary |
| title | Benthic prey quantity and quality in the main mudflat feeding areas of the Tagus Estuary: Implications for bird and fish populations |
| title_full | Benthic prey quantity and quality in the main mudflat feeding areas of the Tagus Estuary: Implications for bird and fish populations |
| title_fullStr | Benthic prey quantity and quality in the main mudflat feeding areas of the Tagus Estuary: Implications for bird and fish populations |
| title_full_unstemmed | Benthic prey quantity and quality in the main mudflat feeding areas of the Tagus Estuary: Implications for bird and fish populations |
| title_short | Benthic prey quantity and quality in the main mudflat feeding areas of the Tagus Estuary: Implications for bird and fish populations |
| title_sort | benthic prey quantity and quality in the main mudflat feeding areas of the tagus estuary implications for bird and fish populations |
| topic | contamination heavy metals macrobenthic community mudflats Tagus Estuary |
| url | https://www.cienciasmarinas.com.mx/index.php/cmarinas/article/view/1392 |
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