| Seasonal monitoring of the meiobenthos in the Dutch estuaries revealed an anomaly in density and diversity of harpacticoid copepods in the Westerschelde. Another Dutch estuary, the Eems Dollard, has comparable hydrodynamical, physical and sedimentological, characteristics and a similar fauna, but even in the severely organically polluted oligohaline mudflats of this estuary, annual average density and diversity of endo-epibenthic harpacticoid communities are higher than at similar less enriched meso- to polyhaline biotopes of the Westerschelde. Besides the concentrations of inorganic pollutants, such as phosphates and nitrates, the concentration of pesticides, cyanide, detergents, phenols, oils, polychlorobenzenes, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and... |
