Metals Uptake by Marine Macroalgae May Have Widespread Indirect Effects

Newswise — Copper and other metals are common contaminants in urban estuaries. A new study has found that widespread metals contamination of macroalgae could be having major adverse effects on the organisms that depend on those communities for habitat and sustenance. The study is published in the latest issue of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.

Metal contaminants come from sources such as storm-water runoff, industrial waters, and marine transportation. Marine macroalgae are efficient accumulators of metals such as copper, lead, and zinc and are relatively tolerant of them. Macroalgae support abundant and diverse communities of mobile invertebrates that play key roles in temperate marine environments.

In this study, copper contamination of macroalgae had a variety of indirect effects, including greatly reducing the epifauna, or surface-living communities on those macroalgae. One of the tested amphipods became less likely to select the contaminated algae as a short-term habitat and also fed less on the algae. Looking at a longer-term experiment of 30 days, surviving juvenile amphipods were reduced by 75 percent as a result of contaminated macroalgae, but no effects on the growth of survivors were observed.

Marine macroalgae are an important component of the trophic food chain. Metals contamination of these algae may have serious ecosystem-level indirect effects.

To read the entire study, click here: http://www.allenpress.com/pdf/entc_25_903_2470_2479.pdf

Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry is the monthly journal of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC). For more information about the Society, visit http://www.setac.org.