Distribution of hydrocarbons in a salt marsh ecosystem after an oil spill and physiological changes in marsh animals from the polluted environment

Support for my doctoral work was provided by The Bureau ofCommercial Fisheries Fish and Wildlife grant no. l4-l7-0007-ll28 (G),The Jesse-Smith Noyes Foundation, National Science Foundation DoctoraiDissertation Improvement grant no. GA 40987, and the Woods HoleOceanographic Institution Education Program.

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic InstitutionJune, 1975

The studies described in this thesis were designed to answerseveral problems relating to the recovery of a salt marsh heavilypolluted by an accidental spill of Number 2 fuel oil. Field andlaboratory studies were conducted for 5 years comparing the oiledWild Harbor Marsh with the unoiled Sippewissett Marsh, both onBuzzards Bay in Massachusetts. The data contributes information1) on the incorporation of oil into the sediments and organismsat the oiled marsh, 2) on the residence times of certain componentsof the oil in the marsh ecosystem, 3) on changes in chemicalcomposition of the oil with time due to physical and chemicalweathering processes and biochemical degradation of hydrocarbons,4) on the effects of oiled sediments on the population distribution,behavior, and survival of the intertidal fiddler crab,Uca pugnax, 5) on the relatively small ability of Uca tometabolize hydrocarbons, 6) on the presence of an inducible invitro microsomal mixed function oxidase (MFO) enzyme system inthe marsh minnow, Fundulus heteroclitus, 7) on the presence ofhigh MFO rates in field populations of Fundulus exosed to hydrocarbonpollution, and 8) for the synthesis into a discussion ofsome of the physiological reasons for the relative sensitivityof marsh animals to oil pollution and their relative ability toadapt to an oil polluted environment.