Intertidal macrozoobenthos in sandy beaches of Bahía Nueva (Patagonia, Argentina) and its use as bioindicators of environmental impact

AGUSTINA FERRANDO; JOSÉ LUIS ESTEVES; RODOLFO ELÍAS; NURIA MÉNDEZ

SCIENTIA MARINA

INST CIENCIAS MAR BARCELONA

Lugar: Barcelona; Año: 2010 vol. 74 p. 345 - 352

0214-8358

Macrozoobenthos were collected in urban sandy beaches of Puerto Madryn and adjacent areas in November 2005. Multivariate analysis techniques (ANOVA, nMDS, ANOSIM, SIMPER, and RDA) allowed the characterization of the area based on the relationships among biological and environmental variables. The areas affected by outfall of fishery factories and pluvial effluent were defined as perturbed zones due to the dominance of the pollution indicator polychaetes Boccardia polybranchia and Capitella "capitata" sp., associated with high values of ammonium, phosphates and organic matter. On the contrary, sandy beaches located 15 km from the city were considered as non-perturbed zones because Psammodrilidae and Puelche orensanzi dominated, with high values of nitrates and dissolved oxygen. These taxa seem to be good candidates as indicators of clean zones for further studies. This is the first record of the family Psammodrilidae in the South Atlantic.