Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-5wvtr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-21T22:29:38.689Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Meiofauna of the industrialised estuary and Firth of Forth, Scotland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2011

C. G. Moore
C. G. Moore
Affiliation:
Department of Brewing and Biological Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Chambers Street, Edinburgh EH1 1HX, Scotland, U.K.
Get access

Synopsis

Knowledge concerning the meiofauna of the Forth is reviewed and extended by presentation of the results of new surveys of the intertidal and subtidal provinces of the estuary. Most of the published information concerns the influence of sewage pollution on shores of the firth. Before 1979, the meiofaunal communities of sandy beaches along the Edinburgh coastline exhibited reduced species richness, although certain taxa displayed enhanced densities. Improvements in the sewage treatment process have initiated a phase of meiofaunal recovery.

In the estuary the salinity regime plays a key role in the determination of species composition, although the influence of local changes in sediment type and stability is recognised. Meiofaunal communities of lower shore mudflats in different salinity zones of the estuary are described. Pollution plays a major modifying role. In the upper reaches of the estuary, which suffer oxygen depletion in summer, only nematodes and oligochaetes were recorded in the oligohaline zone and impoverished nematode and copepod faunas in the mesohaline zone. In the polyhaline zone discharges from the industrialised region around Grangemouth modify meiofaunal community structure over an extensive area of mudflat. The subtidal meiofauna of the lower estuary is briefly described, particularly with respect to the copepods. Impoverishment again occurs in the vicinity of Grangemouth.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Section B: Biological Sciences , Volume 93 , Issue 3-4: The Natural Environment of the Estuary and Firth of Forth , 1987 , pp. 415 - 430
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1987

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Amjad, S., & Gray, J. S., 1983. Use of the nematode-copepod ratio as an index of organic pollution. Marine Pollution Bulletin 14, 178–181.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, K. J., Read, P. A., Matthews, J. E., & Watson, P. G., 1981. Ecology of the Firth of Forth. Edinburgh: Lothian Regional Council/Napier College.Google Scholar
Arlt, G., 1975. Remarks on indicator organisms (meiofauna) in the coastal waters of the GDR. Merentutkimuslaitoksen julkaisu 239, 272–279.Google Scholar
Coull, B. C., 1973. Estuarine meiofauna: a review, trophic relationships and microbial interactions. In Estuarine Microbial Ecology, eds. Stevenson, L. H., & Colwell, R. R., pp. 499–511. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Forth River Purification Board 1979. Annual report for year ended 31st December, 1979. Edinburgh: FRPB.Google Scholar
Gerlach, S. A., 1954. Das Supralitoral der sandigen Meereskusten als Lebensraum einer Mikrofauna. Kieler Meeresforschungen 10, 121–129.Google Scholar
Govaere, J. C. R., van Damme, D., Heip, C., & de Coninck, L. A. P., 1980. Benthic communities in the Southern Bight of the North Sea and their use in ecological monitoring. Helgolander wissenschaftliche Meeresuntersuchungen 33, 507–521.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Griffiths, A. H., 1987. Water quality of the estuary and Firth of Forth, Scotland. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 93B, 303–314.Google Scholar
Jayasree, K., 1976. Systematics and ecology of free-living marine nematodes from polluted interlidal sand in Scotland (Ph.D. Thesis, University of Aberdeen).Google Scholar
Kansanen, P. H., 1981. Effects of heavy pollution on the zoobenthos in Lake Vanajavesi, southern Finland, with special reference to the meiozoobenthos. Annales Zoologici Fennici 18, 243–251.Google Scholar
Leatherland, T. M., 1987. The estuary and Firth of Forth, Scotland—uses and aims. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 93B, 285–297.Google Scholar
McIntyre, A. D., & Murison, D., 1973. The meiofauna of a flatfish nursery ground. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 53, 93–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McIntyre, A. D., & Warwick, R. M., 1984. Meiofauna techniques. In Methods for the Study of Marine Benthos, 2nd edn, eds. Holme, N. A., & Mclntyre, A. D., Chap. 7, pp. 217–244. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
McLachlan, A., 1978. A quantitative analysis of the meiofauna and the chemistry of the redox potential discontinuity zone in a sheltered sandy beach. Estuarine, Coastal and Marine Science 7, 275–290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLusky, D. S., 1982. The impact of petrochemical effluent on the fauna of an intertidal estuarine mudflat. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 14, 489–499.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLusky, D. S., Bryant, D., Elliot, M., Teare, M., & Moffat, G., 1976. Intertidal fauna of the industrialized Forth Estuary. Marine Pollution Bulletin 7, 48–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLusky, D. S., Teare, M., & Phizacklea, P., 1980. Effects of domestic and industrial pollution on distribution and abundance of aquatic oligochaetes in the Forth estuary. Helgolander Meeresuntersuchungen 33, 384–392.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mills, D. K., 1985. Productivity and distribution of benthic microalgae in the Forth Estuary (Ph.D., Thesis, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh).Google Scholar
Mohd-Long, S., 1986. The impact of pollution on the meiofauna of an estuarine mudflat (M.Sc., Thesis, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh).Google Scholar
Moore, C. G., 1979a. The zonation of psammolittoral harpacticoid copepods around the Isle of Man. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 59, 725–736.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, C. G., 1979b. Analysis of the associations of meiobenthic Copepoda of the Irish Sea. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 59, 831–849.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, C. G., Murison, D. J., Mohd-Long, S., & Mills, D. J. L., 1987. The impact of oily discharges on the meiobenthos of the North Sea. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B 316, 525–544.Google Scholar
Penter, D. M., 1968. The ecology of intertidal harpacticoids in the Swale, North Kent (Ph.D., Thesis, University of London).Google Scholar
Platt, H. M., 1977. Ecology of free-living marine nematodes from an intertidal sandflat in Strangford Lough, Northern Ireland. Estuarine and Coastal Marine Science 5, 685–693.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raffaelli, D. G., & Mason, C. F., 1981. Pollution monitoring with meiofauna, using the ratio of nematodes to copepods. Marine Pollution Bulletin 12, 158–163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Read, P. A., Anderson, K. J., Matthews, J. E., Watson, P. G., Halliday, M. C., & Shiells, G. M., 1983. Effects of pollution on the benthos of the Firth of Forth. Marine Pollution Bulletin 14, 12–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Remane, A., & Schlieper, C., 1958. Biology of brackish water. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Scott, T., 1906. A catalogue of land, fresh-water, and marine Crustacea found in the basin of the River Forth and its estuary. Part II—The Ostracoda, Copepoda, and Cirripedia. Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh 16, 267–386.Google Scholar
Shiells, G. M., 1983. A study of the influence of mixed industrial and domestic sewage effluent on marine intertidal meiobenthos on certain contaminated shores of Firth of Forth (Ph.D., Thesis, Napier College, Edinburgh).Google Scholar
Shiells, G. M., & Anderson, K. J., 1985. Pollution monitoring using the nematode/copepod ratio: a practical application. Marine Pollution Bulletin 16, 62–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stout, H. P., 1976. Prediction of oxygen deficits associated with effluent inputs to the Forth estuary. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers 61, 351–366.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teare, M. J., 1978. An energy budget for Tachidius discipes (Copepoda, Harpacticoida) from an estuarine mud-flat (Ph.D., Thesis, University of Exeter).Google Scholar
Warwick, R. M., & Gee, J. M., 1984. Community structure of estuarine meiobenthos. Marine Ecology Progress Series 18, 97–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wieser, W., 1960. Benthic studies in Buzzards Bay. II The meiofauna. Limnology and Oceanography 5, 121–137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar