Uptake and clearance of diesel alkanes from sediments by the Great Barrier Reef gastropodStrombus luhuanus
✍ Scribed by H. F. Chapman; D. W. Connell
- Book ID
- 104753212
- Publisher
- Springer-Verlag
- Year
- 1986
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 413 KB
- Volume
- 92
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0025-3162
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✦ Synopsis
Sediments from the reef flat at Heron Island, Great Barrier Reef. were treated with known amounts of diesel and the uptake and clearance characteristics of the diesel nalkanes by the gastropod Strornbus luhuanus, in the field and aquaria, were measured. In each case, the uptake curve was unusual in that the concentration, expressed in terms of wet weight, reached a maxima within 24 h and then declined to relatively low levels. The maximum concentrations reached were below that in the sediments. Within the range investigated, the alkanes exhibited a substantial decline ill the uptake rate-constant with increasing carbon number, tricosane exhibiting approximately 25% of the uptake rate-constant of dodecane. On the other hand, persistence, measured as the half-life, showed an increase with carbon number. Dodecane had a half life of 0.6 d and octadecane one of 2.2 d.
Organisms in the Great Barrier Reef region contain trace concentrations of agricultural chemicals (Olafson, 1978) and there is the possibility of similar trace contamination by petroleum which would be expected to be accumulated in sediments. The study reported here was initiated to investigate the uptake and clearance of nalkanes from contaminated sediments by the common Great Barrier Reef gastropod Strombus luhuanus. This species is abundant throughout the Indo-Pacific (Abbott, 1960) and occurs mainly in sandy areas associated with coral reefs. The species is a deposit-feeder, grazing on micro-algae and detritus, with adults reaching a length of 40 to 60 mm.
Since laboratory experiments, using aquaria, often do not represent the many processes which occur in the natural environment, it was decided to utilise both natural situations as well as laboratory experiments,