MARINE POLLUTION AND THE VALUE OF THE BENTHIC MACROINFAUNA FOR ITS ASSESSMENT AND MONITORING: SOME EXAMPLES AT CONCEPCION MARINE COAST, CHILE

Abstract

The value of ihe benthic macroinfauna for the study and assessment of the marine pollution, from more relevant literature are revised and discussed. Thus, issues as biológica! monitoring and the different ways utilized to assessment the effects of pollution are analized and discussed. Marine benthic infauna communities are very suitable and superior to many other biological groups used in routine biological monitoring prográmales, fact which is stressed. In the analysis of the different modalities used to detect the effects of pollution on marine organisms, special attention receive the: i) species diversity indices, critically discussing their utility; ii) the multivariate analytic techniques, classification and ordenation, presenting the most utilized; iii) the pollution biotic indices, analising their validity; iv) the pollution indicator or sensitive species, concept which his present status is discussed, showing some examples from the Concepción (Chile) marine coast; and v) the distribution by species dominance curves, being their utility showed with some examples of the same marine area.