Impact of the Aegean Sea oil spill on the subtidal fine sand macrobenthic community of the Ares-Betanzos Ria (Northwest Spain)

Two sites located in the sublittoral fine-sand macrobenthic community of the Ares-Betanzos Ria were sampled over four years (December 1992–November 1996) in the wake of the Aegean Sea oil spill. This sampling revealed that the petroleum had affected the structure and abundance of this community, as well as the number of taxa present. In this context, the results of the biotic index and the biotic coefficient were insufficient; however, study of the synthetic parameters, particularly through multivariate analysis, showed that the community went through three successive and distinct phases over time. A short period of high mortality in some species, especially amphipods, was followed by a period of low abundance that lasted until the spring of 1995. A period of recovery began in the second half of 1995 and continued through to the end of 1996, when the survey ended. The community showed a gradual evolution back towards the conditions observed immediately after the spill, when abundance of the more resistant species was still high. Despite this similarity, the last period exhibits a new structure, clearly separate from the two previous periods. This study provides information about the short-term effects of the Aegean Sea oil spill on the fine sand bottoms of the sites surveyed in the Ares-Betanzos Ria. This information could also serve as a baseline for identifying the effects of a more recent accident, the Prestige oil spill, in which similar communities in other Galician rias were polluted in 2002–2003.