Abstract
ABSTRACT This study reports biological effects of the July 1975 oil spill in the Florida Keys for a one-year period. Floating seagrass served as a natural sorbent for oil and stranded in the intertidal zone. A soluble component of oil, or possibly an organic cleaning solvent, leaching from this debris, was probably responsible for a mass mortality of subtidal echinoderms on the rocky platform. Several crab species were eliminated from the rocky shores, mangrove fringes, and Batis marsh communities for several months. Subtidal pearl oysters (Pinctada radiata) from the grass flat community suffered extensive mortalities, also attributable to a soluble component of oil. Red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle)seedlings on the fringe and in the mangrove swamp, sustaining greater than 50% oiling of their leaves, were killed. Dwarf black mangroves (Avicennia nitida) with greater than 50% oiling of pneumatophores also died, as did some where the substrate remained oiled one year later. Elevated temperatures, exceeding lethal limits for many intertidal organisms, were observed in oil-covered substrates. Oil persisted in the substrate of rocky shores and mangrove-marsh areas for at least one year after the spill.
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