Nov 05 2018 10:00 AM
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Nov 05 2018 11:00 AM
TITLE: Multiple stressor interaction effects of nutrient enrichment and oil pollution on Red Sea benthic recruitment
ADVISOR: Prof. Michael Berumen
DATE: Monday, 5 November
TIME: 10 am
LOCATION: Building 2 (seaside) · Level 5 · Room 5220
ABSTRACT: Increases in coastal development along the Saudi Arabian coast may
increase eutrophication due to impacts of human population and also oil
pollution from increased shipping traffic and refinery activity. The risk of
oil pollution combined with increasing eutrophication due to coastal
development provides a clear stressor interaction which is vastly understudied.
Individually, these stressors are known to negatively impact coral
reproduction, recruitment, and growth. This study focuses on reef settlement
and recovery following experimentally-simulated disturbance scenarios.
Carbonate recruitment tiles were placed on the reef and exposed to four
treatments: control, nutrient enrichment with slow-release fertilizer, tiles
soaked in crude oil, and a combination treatment of nutrient enrichment and
oil-coated tiles. At periods of 3, 6, 9, 14, and 17 weeks, tiles were collected
to classify the settled community and measure oxygen production. Oil, nitrate,
and phosphate were the biggest determining factors predicting settlement and
oxygen production of the different treatments. The oil treatment had the least
overall settlement and oxygen production, whereas the nutrient treatment had the
most turf algal recruitment and oxygen production. The combination treatment
had an antagonistic effect on algal growth: the nutrients facilitated growth on
the otherwise toxic oiled tiles.
