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Invertebrate Production Ecology in Relation to Estuarine Quality Management

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Estuarine Management and Quality Assessment

Abstract

The use of the production ecology of estuarine macrobenthic invertebrates is proposed as a measure of detecting sub-lethal stress within those populations. It is suggested that the growth and amounts and rates of secondary production give a long-term integration of the environmental factors, both natural and polluting, affecting such populations. Furthermore, those parameters can be used to detect stress on an estuarine community at a level lower than that needed to change the community structure. A case-study of part of the industrialised Forth estuary, Scotland, is used to illustrate the variation within these parameters in a Macoma balthica (L) population attributable both to the usual environmental changes encountered over an intertidal area and to the influence of polluting sources.

The second part of the paper contrasts the use of production ecology in detecting stress on estuarine invertebrates, and therefore its use in estuarine management, with other indices of stress on and change in communities, populations and individuals which may be attributable to pollution.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Estuary Laboratories, Forth River Purification Board, Port Edgar Marina, South Queensferry, Edinburgh, EH30 9SQ, UK

    M. Elliott

  2. Department of Biology, University of Stirling, FK9 4LA, Scotland

    D. S. McLusky

Authors
  1. M. Elliott
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  2. D. S. McLusky
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Trinity College, University of Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    J. G. Wilson

  2. Welsh Water Authority, Bridgend, Wales

    W. Halcrow

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© 1985 Plenum Press, New York

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Elliott, M., McLusky, D.S. (1985). Invertebrate Production Ecology in Relation to Estuarine Quality Management. In: Wilson, J.G., Halcrow, W. (eds) Estuarine Management and Quality Assessment. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-9418-5_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-9418-5_11

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4615-9420-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-9418-5

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