Applications of Life Table Response Experiments to the Evaluation of Toxicant Effects at the Population Level with the Polychaete Dinophilus gyrociliatus

Abstract

Abstract Heavy metals are among the most widespread pollutants in harbor environments and coastal habitats subject to anthropogenic impact, and their harmful effects have been demonstrated on various species of polychaetes, depending on the metal and its role in physiological processes (Reish and Gerlinger, 1997; Reish, 1998). An evaluation of the impact of contaminants at both individual and population levels can be obtained through life table response experiments, a method for estimating the effect of pollutants on biological fitness (Caswell, 2000). This approach has been recently adopted to study the biological effects of pollutants on marine environments utilizing the polychaetes Capitella capitata, Streblospio benedicti, and Dinophilus gyrociliatus as bio-indicator species (Levin et al., 1996; Hansen et al., 1999; Mauri et al., 2002, 2003). In this chapter, we compare the sensitivity of some population parameters such as the population growth rate, λ, the life expectancy, e0, and the net growth rate, R , estimated for cohorts of D. gyrociliatus exposed to zinc and chromium.