Inquiry into the suitability of protozoa as biological indicators of oil pollution. Final report

TL;DRAbstract

An inquiry was made into the suitability of protozoa as bioindicators of oil pollution. Oil uptake rates and oil toxicity were measured for the marine ciliate protozoan Euplotes diadaleos. Euplotes ingest oil at a rate of approximately 1 ng/min over the first three hours of exposure to an emulsion of oil in water. The 90hr LC50 of the solubilized fraction of crude oil is 1.7 ppm. Toxicity is directly correlated with the log of the concentration of oil with one interesting exception: the population of Euplotes increases dramatically at 8 ppm. Field experiments using artificial substrates in oiled ponds indicated that: (1) oil descends through the water column as droplets associated with detritus; (2) the rate of descent is directly correlated with the salinity of the water, and (3) the interaction of oil with microfaunal communities is complex. The biological parameters of population, species number, and community diversity index generally exceeded pre-spill levels after three weeks. In

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