Orientador: Fosca Pedini Pereira Leite / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Biologia / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-14T00:36:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Pavani_Lilian_M.pdf: 1390022 bytes, checksum: 43df8a085a06d86b5eadaf092c0fbf14 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009 / Resumo: Na região do Canal de São Sebastião, onde opera o maior terminal petrolífero do Brasil, há extensos bancos de algas pardas do gênero Sargassum e anfípodes associados, mas também existem hidrocarbonetos alifáticos e aromáticos de petróleo na água e no sedimento. Sabese que os anfípodes são eficientes bioindicadores de qualidade ambiental, assim como as algas são importantes bioacumuladores. Avaliou-se a presença de hidrocarbonetos em Sargassum e buscou-se relacionar suas concentrações com distâncias crescentes a partir do terminal, tanto ao norte quanto ao sul da Ilha de São Sebastião. Essas concentrações e distâncias também foram utilizadas para verificar a estruturação das comunidades de anfípodes do fital de Sargassum. Essa avaliação foi feita para anfípodes, abordando-se a composição de grupos tróficos e de espécies. Não foi constatada relação entre as distâncias e concentrações de hidrocarbonetos presentes nas algas e na estruturação das comunidades de anfípodes em nenhuma das abordagens. No entanto, notou-se correspondência entre elas, o que indica que a identificação em famílias para o estabelecimento de grupos tróficos pode ser eficiente numa avaliação ambiental mais rápida. Também se obteve importante informação em relação à fauna de anfípodes do litoral do Estado de São Paulo, uma vez que ainda não havia estudos na Ilha de São Sebastião e a fauna de ilhas do estado ainda é pouco conhecida / Abstract: In the São Sebastião Channel region, where operates the greatest Brazilian petroliferous terminal, there are extensive banks of the brown seaweed Sargassum with many associated amphipods, but also polyciclic aromatic hydrocarbons and aliphatic hydrocarbons, which are present both in sedment and water. The amphipods are known to be efficient bioindicators of environmental quality, as well as the seaweed are important bioacumulators. The presence of hydrocarbons in Sargassum and its relationship with increasing distances from the terminal, both north and south of the São Sebastião Island, was evaluated. These concentrations and distances were also used to verify the structure of amphipod communities associated to Sargassum . This evaluation was made for amphipods identified in trofic groups and in species. There was no significant relationship between distances from the terminal and concentrations of hydrocarbons in the seaweed or the estructure of the amphipod communities. However, correspondence between the aproachs (trofic groups and species) was noticed, which indicates that the identification in families for the establishment of trofic groups can be efficient in a faster ambient evaluation. Also, important information related to amphipods of the São Paulo State coast was achieved, as far as the fauna of São Sebastião Island was first studied and the islands fauna of the State are still little known / Mestrado / Ecologia / Mestre em Ecologia

Hard substrates in the marine environment are an important ecosystem of great scientific and economic value. Hard substrates provide suitable habitat for a diverse assemblage of benthic organisms. This thesis investigated the ecology of benthic hard substrate communities along a section of wave-exposed coastline, including the Sardinia Bay Marine Protected Area (MPA), in the warm-temperate Agulhas bioregion of South Africa. The effect of physical variables on benthic communities, including both the intertidal and shallow subtidal, was quantitatively assessed across (Chapter 3) and along (Chapter 4) the shore to provide a model of zonation for this bioregion and a baseline of community patters and biodiversity, as this information was lacking especially for the Sardinia Bay MPA. The zones described in Chapter 3 were in agreement with previous trends described for this bioregion with the addition of different biotopes in the upper Balanoid and deeper subtidal zones as well as the addition of an intermediate/transition zone in the subtidal between the algal dominated shallow subtidal and deeper subtidal, which has an increased abundance of sessile invertebrates. Disturbance is an important process in structuring benthic communities, and its role in structuring shallow benthic communities was investigated using a disturbance simulation experiment across a wave-exposure gradient (Chapter 5). Communities were found to change along the exposure gradient and monitoring the undisturbed communities showed that large waves caused disturbances across all the exposures. The recovery process was similar across all exposures mainly through lateral vegetative growth and regrowth from basal parts with communities in disturbed quadrats recovering to resemble the surrounding undisturbed community. Recruitment did not have a significant effect in the recovery process and community composition was therefore a result of the effects of the physical environment along the exposure gradient. Lastly this thesis investigated the indirect effects of protection in the small Sardinia Bay MPA (Chapter 6). Despite the small size of the MPA this study found differences in diversity and abundance between communities inside and outside the MPA. These differences in benthic biota infer indirect effects of protection that are probably due to the increase in abundance of exploited fish inside the MPA. Lower abundances of red algae, macroinvertebrates and diversity inside the MPA in the shallow depth category was attributed to the higher abundance of the generalist fish species that concentrate in the shallows. Significantly lower abundances of Chordata in the shallow and medium depth categories inside the MPA was attributed to predation by the benthic carnivorous species as ascidians are included in the diet of these species. This chapter also compared the effectiveness of destructive (scraped quadrats) and non-destructive (visually assessed quadrats) sampling methods. Scraped quadrats were found to be more effective in detecting changes across the MPA compared to visually assessed quadrats. Destructive methods sample the entire assemblage, to a higher taxonomic level, and measure abundance using biomass. It was concluded that biomass is a better metric when comparing communities across protection or other treatments as it provides better biological information of the community.