Biofilm responses to marine fish farm wastes
2011
Sanz-Lázaro, Carlos | Navarrete Mier, Francisco | Marín, Arnaldo | Universidad de Alicante. Departamento de Ciencias del Mar y Biología Aplicada | Biología Marina
The changes in the biofilm community due to organic matter enrichment, eutrophication and metal contamination derived from fish farming were studied. The biofilm biomass, polysaccharide content, trophic niche and element accumulation were quantified along an environmental gradient of fish farm wastes in two seasons. Biofilm structure and trophic diversity was influenced by seasonality as well as by the fish farm waste load. Fish farming enhanced the accumulation of organic carbon, nutrients, selenium and metals by the biofilm community. The accumulation pattern of these elements was similar regardless of the structure and trophic niche of the community. This suggests that the biofilm communities can be considered a reliable tool for assessing dissolved aquaculture wastes. Due to the ubiquity of biofilms and its wide range of consumers, its role as a sink of dissolved wastes may have important implications for the transfer of aquaculture wastes to higher trophic levels in coastal systems.
Show more [+] Less [-]This work was funded by the project AGL2004-08350-C02-01/ACU from the Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología, a predoctoral grant to C. S. from the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (Spain) and another predoctoral grant to F. N. from the ALBAN programme (EU).
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