Please choose your delivery country and your customer group
The responses of microcosm and pond zooplankton communities to oil treatment were quite similar. Their close agreement lends support for using shallow-water pond microcosms as surrogates for field experiments in hazard evaluation. Changes in cladoceran densities were the most sensitive indicators of stress in the zooplankton communities. Copepods were slightly less sensitive, and rotifers were least sensitive to oil treatment. Indirect effects on populations were observed at intermediate treatment levels. The lowest treatment levels at which persistent and significant ecological changes occurred were the same in both systems. These levels were similar to the lowest observed-effect concentration (LOEC) for the Daphnia magna chronic bioassay, or approximately 30% of the D. magna 48-h LC sub 50 . Community structure responses were generally consistent between systems; however, sensitivity for detecting oil treatment effects varied greatly among the measures of community structure. Species richness and diversity measures were not as sensitive as individual species responses. Cluster and multivariate post-clustering analyses of community similarity values reflected indirect effects and had sufficient sensitivity to allow early impact detection. An expanded principal components technique, which used both zooplankton and water quality data, was also relatively sensitive and would be applicable for routine monitoring. (ERA citation 11:031349)