engleski

Assessing of ecological status using geochemical and benthic foraminifera tools (Koper Bay, Northern Adriatic)

oastal environments are often the subject of different interests with recent anthropogenic pressure coming from industrial and domestic activities. Due toincreasing interestsaboutmanagement and protection of such coastal areasthehuge effort directed toward developing the tools for the assessment of theirenvironmental and ecological status. Benthic species are preferred because of their characteristics, such asreduced mobility, high diversity and life spans. Within this surveywe try toprovide the ecologicalstatusof Koper Bay (Northern Adriatic)and to determine if benthic foraminiferal assemblages reflect heavy-metal contamination in sediments. For this purpose, sediment samples from the bay were analysed in order to determine the levels of heavy metals in spatial and temporal sections of the bay and to correlate with composition and diversity of foraminiferal assemblages.Mineralogical and geochemical analyses reflect geological featuresof the hinterland, while trace elementsshow the differences betweencoastal and offshore reference location.Benthic foraminiferal assemblages are composed of hyaline Rotalinae forms of moderate to high species diversity, and are dominated by infaunal pollution tolerant Ammoniainflata, Haynesisnasp., Valvulineria bradyanaand non-keel Elphidiumsp. and subordinately by AmmoniatepidaandHaynesinadepressula.Stressful environmental conditions werefound to influence on benthic foraminiferal occurrence.Statistical analyses on foraminiferal species andtrace (heavy) element concentrations reveal possible control of some pollutants (Fe, Mn, Cr, Cu, Zr)on diversity and some (Pb, Ni) on taxonomic composition of foraminiferal assemblages.Multivariate analyses suggested that the terrigenous input (Rižana river flow) make stronger effect on the community than anthropogenic activities monitored through the geochemistry of the sediment.

Infauna ; Trace lelemnts ; Species diversity

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