Estuarine ecosystems concentrations

Buckley EN, Jonas RB, Pfaender FK. 1976. Characterization of microbial isolates from an estuarine ecosystem Relationship of hydrocarbon utilization to ambient hydrocarbon concentrations. Appl Environ Microbiol 32(2) 232-237. 

Shaw GR, Connell DW. 1982. Factors influencing concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls in organisms from an estuarine ecosystem. Aust J Mar Freshwater Res 33 1057-1070. 

In marine ecosystems, the high copper levels measured in heavily contaminated coastal areas sometimes approach the incipient lethal concentrations for some organisms (Neff and Anderson 1977). Elevated copper concentrations in marine and estuarine environments may result from atmospheric deposition, industrial and municipal wastes, urban runoff, rivers, and shoreline erosion. Chesapeake Bay, for example, receives more than 1800 kg of copper daily from these sources (Hall et al. 1988). Copper concentrations in abiotic marine materials are generally higher near shore than... 

The presence of organic compounds in river and oceanic sediments is due, in part, to manmade pollution and monitoring the levels of these substances in the sediment and sediment cores provides an indication of the time dependence of their concentration over large time spans. Contamination of sediments is found not only in rivers but also in estuarine and oceanic sediments and thus sediment analysis provides a means of tracking organic from their source through the ecosystem. 

Differential metal concentrations in tissues or organs, as well as the growth rates and production of sea grasses78 and salt marsh plants,81 have been used to calculate the potential cycling/turnover of metals within a system and/or the annual export of contaminants from an estuarine environment to adjacent coastal waters. Similar studies have been performed for macroalgae23 and have provided valuable information on contaminant transport and bioavailability processes within and between aquatic ecosystems, since contaminants associated with decaying plant biomasses will become bio-available through herbivory or the detritivore food web. 

Figure 18.21 Comparative analyses of fisheries characteristics in relation to trophic status of estuarine and coastal ecosystems around the world (A) fisheries harvest versus primary production (re-drawn from Nixon and Buckley, 2002) (B) ratio of pelagic-to-demersal fish caught in fishery plotted versus phytoplankton chlorophyll concentration (natural logarithm of hoth x and y variahles). Figure 18.21 (B) was re-drawn from de Leiva Moreno et al. (2000) with Chesapeake Bay data added for two time periods.

Figure 4 Progressive changes in fish and invertebrate fauna as oxygen concentration decreases from 2mgl to anoxia. From Rabalais NN, Harper DE, Jr., and Tuner RE (2001) Responses of nekton and demersal and benthic fauna to decreasing oxygen concentrations. In Rabalais NN and Turner RE (eds.) Coastal and Estuarine Studies 58 Coastal Hypoxia Consequences for Living Resources and Ecosystems, pp. 115-128. Washington, DC American Geophysical Union.

---