Mr Harry Catherall1, Prof. Pippa Moore1, Hannah Earp1, Kasiah Watson Blair1, Dr. Heather Sugden1
1Newcastle University, UK, , United Kingdom
Kelp forests form some of the most productive and critically important marine habitats on Earth. Many studies have described the macroinvertebrate assemblages associated with kelp holdfasts and stipes, however, the impacts of environmental pollutants on these assemblages have been relatively understudied. Stretches of the northeast coastline of England have been heavily impacted by historic coal mining operations, that in some locations dumped over 40 million tonnes of mining spoil onto the coastline. This led to the loss of key intertidal and shallow subtidal ecosystems, including kelp forests. In the 1990s millions of pounds was spent on cleaning up this spoil waste and kelp forests have since recovered. The impacts of this historic mining persist, however, with elevated levels of metal pollutants detected in kelp tissues. In order to investigate the impacts of this historic mine waste on the holdfast and stipe associated macroinvertebrate fauna 6 sites were sampled along a gradient of mining impact. Heavy metal (Al, Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn, Pb, and Zn) concentration of holdfast tissue was determined using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry. Holdfast and stipes were also collected from these sites and macroinvertebrate diversity, richness and assemblage structure were determined. Our results indicate a reduction in richness and diversity and an altered macroinvertebrate assemblage with increasing levels of pollutants, with shifts observed in key functional groups across this gradient. Our results suggest that macroinvertebrate assemblages can act as indicator species for areas recovering from industrialisation.
Presentation Slides – Harry Catherall
Biography:
Harry is a 3rd year PhD student at the Dove Marine Lab, Newcastle University. He has a strong interest in benthic marine ecology and his current research focuses on the structure and function of kelp forests along the northeast England coastlines. He has been comparing the structure and function of kelp forests, from population level down to epibacterial communities, along ‘pristine’ sections of the Northumberland and Berwick coastlines with those of the Durham coastline which have been historically impacted by coal mining spoil and are recovering from these impacts, and is excited to share some results with you today.
