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Research conducted by: Martin Riddle, Paul Goldsworthy, Jonny Stark, Sarah Richards, Laura Cunningham, Belinda Thompson

Pink starfish Photo: Martin Riddle

Although toxicity tests can indicate the levels of contamination likely to be of concern, and monitoring sentinel species for accumulated contaminants can provide early warning that thresholds may be exceeded, neither methods provide a measure of the overall environmental impact caused by contamination. The ultimate test of whether a contaminant has an impact on the animals and plants is to see whether there are changes in survival of the different species. Changes to biological communities are widely accepted as the best, overall measure of environmental impact.

In our research at Casey, marine benthic communities are being compared at sites close to the old refuse tips and at sites nearby that are outside the influence of contamination (i.e. clean sites). Our aim is to determine whether contamination is responsible for changes in the diversity and distribution of species in two different communities: those animals that live within the marine sediments and those plants and animals that live in association with the subtidal rocky reefs. A major component of this research involves the collection and identification of the various marine plants and animals that are encountered around Casey. Underwater photographs of the more common invertebrate and algal species can be viewed in the benthic image library.

This page was last modified on August 12, 2010.