Experimental studies of benthos resistance to mechanical burying under the dredging material

Abstract

The goal of the fulfilled research is the study of the influence of the sedimentary suspension from the dredging material on the benthic hydrobionts. In laboratory aquariums six series of experiments were carried out with triple replication on the ability of different benthic organisms to dig out the soil strata due to their periodic burying by marine sand. These experiments were oriented on biota of Eastern Gulf of Finland and the Neva Bay, where a number of deposit sites for dredging material are located presently. Representatives of three main groups of hydrobionts of these areas were selected for experiments – Chironomidae, Gastropoda and Oligochaeta. The ability of different hydrobiont species to overcome the stress effect of the burying under the dredged material was estimated quantitatively. The results show, that the resistance of the studied species to mechanical burying is decreasing in accordance to the scheme: Chironomus plumosus > Melanoides tuberculata > Tubifex tubifex, and depends from the thickness of the layer of dredged material.