A. Nicolaidou et al., COMPARING ECOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF 2 DIFFERENT TYPES OF POLLUTION USING MULTIVARIATE TECHNIQUES, Marine ecology, 14(2), 1993, pp. 113-128
The effects of pollution by organic wastes were compared with those ca
used by dumping of coarse metalliferous residues on the benthic faunas
in two areas in Greece. The efficiency of several univariate and mult
ivariate methods in describing these effects was evaluated. Both types
of pollution caused a decline in the number of species and diversity,
except when dumping of solid wastes took place on finer sediments. Th
ere, the above parameters increased due to the increased heterogeneity
of the sediment. Pollution by organic matter resulted in increased de
nsities of opportunistic species. Conversely, lack of organic matter i
n the solid wastes did not enhance settlement of opportunists, with th
e exception of two species which were thought to benefit indirectly fr
om the slag. The effects of organic pollution were described successfu
lly by all mathematical methods used, while diversity and species abun
dance curves were not very adequate in describing solid waste pollutio
n. Classification was not very helpful in distinguishing between pollu
ted and clean sites, while ordination proved useful in separating poll
uted and unpolluted stations as well as the two different types of pol
lution.