| The annelid fauna inhabiting soft bottoms was analysed during February and April, 1997 in the Urfas estuary which is mostly surrounded by mangrove swamps, but is also subjected to the effect of several anthropogenic activities, Classification and ordination techniques were used to perform the characterisation of the system based on the annelid assemblages according to environmental variables (mainly organic matter content and percentage of mud). Three zones were found: (1) 'very polluted zone', in front of a slaughterhouse and a fish processing factory with a total lack of macrofauna due to the strong enrichment of the sediment in organic matters (2) 'polluted zones', characterised by the sporadic presence of oligochaetes in front of a domestic sewage... |
