Effects of Abatement of Domestic Sewage Pollution on the Benthos, Volumes of Zooplankton, and

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University of Miami
Scholarly Repository
Studies in Tropical Oceanography University of Miami Press
1970
Effects of Abatement of Domestic Sewage
Pollution on the Benthos, Volumes of
Zooplankton, and the Fouling Organisms of
Biscayne Bay, Florida
J. Kneeland McNulty
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Recommended Citation
McNulty, J. Kneeland, "Effects of Abatement of Domestic Sewage Pollution on the Benthos, Volumes of Zooplankton, and the Fouling
Organisms of Biscayne Bay, Florida" (1970).Studies in Tropical Oceanography. 9.
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Studies in Tropical Oceanography No, 9
By J. Knecland McNulty
UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI PRESS
Coral Gables, Florida
Effects of Abatement
of Domestic Sewage Pollution
in Biscayne Bay
STUDIES IN TROPICAL OCEANOGRAPHY
No. 1. Systematics and Life History of the
Great Barracuda, Sphyraena barracuda (Walbaum)
By Donald P. de Sylva
No. 2. Distribution and Relative Abundance of
Billfishes (Istiophoridae) of the Pacific Ocean
By John K. Howard and Shoji Ueyanagi
No. 3. Index to the Genera, Subgenera, and Sections of
the Pyrrhophyta
By Alfred R. Loeblich, Jr. and Alfred R. Loeblich, III
No. 4. The R/V Pillsbury Deep-Sea Biological Expedition to
the Gulf of Guinea, 1964-1965 (Part 1)
No. 5. Proceedings of the International Conference on
Tropical Oceanography, November 17-24,1965, Miami
Beach, Florida
No. 6. American Opisthobranch Mollusks
By Eveline Marcus and Ernst Marcus
No. 7. The Systematics of Sympatric Species in West Indian
Spatangoids: A Revision of the Genera Brissopsis,
Plethotaenia, Paleopneustes, and Saviniaster
By Richard H. Chesher
No. 8. Stomatopod Crustacea of the Western Atlantic
By Raymond B. Manning
Studies in Tropical Oceanography No. 9
Institute of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences
University of Miami
Effects of Abatement
of Domestic Sewage Pollution
the Benthos, Volumes of Zooplankton,
and the Fouling Organisms of
Biscayne Bay, Florida
By J. Kneeland McNulty
UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI PRESS
Coral Gables, Florida
This volume may be referred to as
Stud. trop. Oceanogr. Miami 9:
107 pp., 19 figs., March, 1970
Editorial Committee for this volume:
F.G. Walton Smith
Hilary B. Moore
Robert Austin Smith
Copyright ©1970 by
University of Miami Press
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 69-19867
SBN 87024-113-3
All rights reserved, including rights of reproduction and use in any
form or by any means, including the making of copies by any
photo process, or by any electronic or mechanical device, printed
or written or oral, or recording for sound or visual reproduction or
for use in any knowledge or retrieval system or device, unless
permission in writing is obtained from the copyright proprietors.
Manufactured in the United States of Amenca
Contents
Figures 7
Tables 9
Foreword 11
Preface 13
Acknowledgments 15
Introduction 19
Pollution and the Marine Environment
Northern Biscayne Bay 26
Methods 33
Results 35
Discussion 77
Summary 81
Abstract 83
Bibliography 85
Index 101
Figures
1 Locations of stations 28
2 Years of major dredge and fill projects 29
3 Distribution of pollution 32
4 Sediment-selectivity spectrum of selective species 48
5 Sediment-selectivity spectrum of essentially nonselective species 49
6 Ecological zones 55
7 Pre- and postabatement populations, Zone Y 56
8 Pre- and postabatement populations, Zone X 58
9 Mean total numbers of individual animals versus distance seaward from
outfalls, zones X and Y 59
10 Pre- and postabatement populations, Zone E 61
11 Pre- and postabatement populations, Zone C 62
12 Pre- and postabatement populations, Zone A 63
13 Mean total numbers of individual animals versus distance seaward from
outfalls, zones A through E 66
14 Mean total volumes of seagrasses versus distance seaward from outfalls,
zones A through E 67
15 Postabatement changes in mean dissolved inorganic phosphate-phospho-
rus 69
16 Postabatement changes in the mean displacement volume of zooplankton 71
17 Postabatement changes in mean displacement volume of fouling organisms
settling on glass panels 73
18 Postabatement changes in number of barnacles settling on glass panels 75
19 Postabatement changes in number of amphipod tubes on glass panels 76
Tables
1 Major Species of Benthic Macroorganisms 35-39
2-A Species and Quantities of Plants and Animals Taken 39-40
2-B Species and Quantities of Plants and Animals Taken 40-41
2-C Species and Quantities of Plants and Animals T aken 42
2-D Species and Quantities of Plants and Animals Taken 43
2-E Species and Quantities of Plants and Animals Taken 44
2-F Species and Quantities of Plants and Animals Taken 45
3 Comparison of Macrobenthos of Soft-Bottom Areas 50-52
4 Comparison of Macrobenthos of Hard-Bottom Areas 52-54
5 Comparison of Volumes of Major Groups of Benthic Plants 64
6 Mean Dissolved Inorganic Phosphate-Phosphorus 68
7 Displacement Volumes of Zooplankton 70
8 Displacement Volumes of Fouling Organisms 72
9 Abundance of Barnacles 72
10 Abundance of Amphiphod Tubes 74
Foreword
The menace of pollution is belatedly coming to be appreciated and the
urgent need for its study realized. Historically such studies have progressed from
fresh waters to estuaries and then to the sea. An understanding of the effects of
pollution calls for a comparison of the ecology of a region with and without the
pollution. Unfortunately, especially with sewage pollution, the onset is usually
gradual, and, by the time that the need for a study is recognized, it is too late to
obtain data on the earlier, unpolluted conditions. Biscayne Bay, therefore, af­
forded the welcome opportunity of studying the conditions in a heavily sewage-
polluted estuary and comparing these with what prevailed some years later after
a sewage treatment plant was in operation and the pollution in the Bay consider­
ably reduced.
The study was important also because the fauna and flora are tropical, and
very little is known of the effects of pollution in the tropics. It is known,
however, that there is a tendency for tropical organisms to be more sensitive to
departure from optimal conditions than are temperate organisms. This has the
advantage of making pollution effects more apparent. On the other hand, there
are far more species in the tropics, there have been fewer studies there than in
temperate waters, and correspondingly much less is known of the basic biology
and ecology of individual tropical species. Again, it is fortunate that many of
such studies as have been made have been carried out in Biscayne Bay.
The Department of Health, Education and Welfare appreciated the need for
the studies presented here and supported them as well as their publication. The
publication of rather extensive original data is justified by the probability that
they will be needed for comparative purposes in the future when such observa­
tion cannot be repeated because of changed conditions. This situation has, in
fact, already arisen with the threat of thermal pollution farther south in the
same bay. Dr. McNulty’s results should be valuable to both biologists and engi-
neerS* The Editors