SRE4 Effects of hydrocarbons on Antarctic Marine Sediment Macrofauna

Brief description

Sediment Recruitment Experiment 4 (SRE4) was a large, long term (5 year) field experiment run at Casey Station (from 2001 to 2006) testing the effects of 4 different hydrocarbons on marine sediment ecosystems. Four different types of hydrocarbons were individually mixed with defaunated marine sediments and deployed in trays on the seabed at O'Brien Bay-1. Trays were collected after deployment periods of 5 weeks, 56 weeks, 62 weeks, 2 years and 5 years. In addition there was a bioturbation treatment using the burrowing urchin Abatus (at 56 weeks only). Samples were collected from 4 replicate trays of each treatment at each sampling time. Analyses were done of sediment hydrocarbon chemistry, microbial communities, meiofaunal communities, macrofaunal communities and diatom communities. The hydrocarbon treatments were: a synthetic Mobil lubricating oil; the same Mobil lubricating oil after 125? hours use in a vehicle engine; a Fuchs synthetic lubricating oil marketed as highly biodegradable; and Special Antarctic Blend diesel fuel (SAB). A control uncontaminated sediment treatment was used for comparison.

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Progress Code: completed

Notes

Purpose
To determine the effects of hydrocarbons on marine sediment ecosystems in Antarctica. This is the parent DIF for the macrofaunal community component of the project. It has many related datasets and metadata records. This is data on composition and abundances of macrofaunal invertebrates recruiting into experimentally manipulated sediments. Taxa are identified to species level where posssible.