|
(73-11) Effect of an aquaculture therapeutant on sediment processing by Capitella spp: implications for marine aquaculture. Méndez, Nuria*,1,2, Betancourt-Lozano, Miguel2,3, Baird, Donald2, Telfer, Trevor2, 1 Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnología, UNAM., Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico2 Institute of Aquaculture. University of Stirling, Stirling, Scotland3 Centro de Investigación en Alimentación y Desarrollo, Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico ABSTRACT- The cosmopolitan deposit-feeding polychaete Capitella is widely used as an indicator of organic pollution and is very common in marine cage aquaculture sediments. Sediment reworking species such as Capitella play an important role in waste recycling at aquaculture sites, and this important ecosystem service is potentially threatened by the occurrence of trace contaminants in the aquaculture waste stream. Teflubenzuron is employed by farms as an in-feed compound to control ectoparasite infestations, and its occurrence in sediments could pose a risk to local sediment infauna. Here, we describe a series of experiments which investigated the effects of exposing Capitella from two different species-populations to sediment spiked with environmentally relevant concentrations of teflubenzuron (0-25 ppm dry wt sediment). Effects of exposure to spiked sediments were assessed in terms of sediment reworking rate (measured as the rate of faecal pellet production), mortality and the presence of chaetal abnormalities (teflubenzuron is a chitinase inhibitor). Key words: Capitella, sediments, bioassays, aquaculture |
