Increased biomass of freeliving marine nematodes may be indicative of disturbances in the ecosystem of the San Antonio bay

GABRIELA VILLARES; CATALINA PASTOR DE WARD

open journal of environmental biology

Peertechz

Lugar: Los Angeles, California; Año: 2020

An ecological study of free-living marine nematodes in salt marshes of San Antonio bay was carried out to determine whether they are affected by anthropicdisturbances. Samples were collected during the summer of 2009. Three sites were selected, one with urban disturbance and two with possible control. In each site thesamples were taken in the 3 areas of the mesolittoral. Nematodes were separated, counted, measured and identifi ed at species level. San Antonio bay presented highsalinity values in all sites. ?Ciudad? showed the highest values of heavy metals and nematode volumetric biomass. ?Baliza Camino? presented the highest salinity valuesand the lowest volumetric biomass values. ?Banco Perdices? presented low organic matter and values intermediate of volumetric biomass.The result indicated that volumetric biomass acted as good indicator of the state of the bay, since the presence of high values of this nematodes would be contributinginformation about the presence of disturbances.