Pollutants and Foraminiferal

Assemblages in Jobos Bay and Torrecilla

Lagoon: An Environmental

Micropaleontological Approach

Michael Martínez-Colón

22

OVER 50 YEARS IN THE MAKING…OVER 50 YEARS IN THE MAKING…

1950 2000

Zalesny (1959)

Watkins (1961)

Seiglie (1964, 1968) (PR)

Seiglie (1971, 1975) (PR)

Banerji (1992)

Alve (1995)

Samir et al. (2001)

Le Cadre & Debenay(2006)

IntroductionIntroduction

cont…٤ Estuaries receive 80%-90% of all waste released to marine environments, therefore are particularly vulnerable to heavy metal pollution.

٤ Effects of pollutants:

water qualitydiseases (flora/fauna)ABNORMALITIES INDIVIDUALSreduced survival rates

ABUNDANCEDIVERSITY COMMUNITIESDISTRIBUTION human disease outbreaks

44

Why Jobos Bay (JB)?*Sanitary/fluvial discharge and illegal dumps*Raw sewage discharge*Thermal pollution from Central Aguirre*DustWork Published Heavy Metals

FoundSeguinot (2001) Hg & CuDumas & Montalvo (2003)

Pb-Fe-Cu-Zn

Jimenez et al. (2003) As-Pb-Cu-Fe-Ni-V-Cd

55

Why Laguna Torrecilla (TL)?*Sanitary/fluvial discharge and illegal dumps*Raw sewage discharge*Backwash from PR-aqueduct and sewer system*Backwash Sergio Cuevas treatmentplantWork Published Metals Found

Webb et al. (1998)As (17 ppm)Hg (0.05 ppm)Pb (20 ppm)

66

To re-establish the use of foraminifera as To re-establish the use of foraminifera as pollutant bio-indicators in Puerto Rico pollutant bio-indicators in Puerto Rico by by understanding their inter-relationship with understanding their inter-relationship with heavy-metals in sediments and in culture heavy-metals in sediments and in culture experiments.experiments.

Purposes

To provide a baseline assessment and characterization of the present environmental conditions at JB and TL using benthic forams.

7

to determine the distribution, bio-availability, and concentration of metals

in sediments within JB and TL

to determine specific morphological deformities induced by bio-available

metals in controlled culture experiments

to determine if key identifiable foraminiferal assemblages are good tracers of pollutants on a spatial/temporal scale

Objectives

88

Study Areas

JobosJobosBayBay

TORRECILLALAGOON

SUAREZCHANNEL

BLASINACREEK

ATLANTIC OCEAN

PINONESLAGOON

TorrecillaTorrecillaLagoonLagoon

99

Preliminary Data from TL

Mean grain size: mud (81%)

SedimentsSediments

(cm)

1010

Metals

Cu values exceedCu values exceedthe world's the world's backgroundbackgroundvalues found invalues found inShale (45ppm).Shale (45ppm).

0 40 80 120 160 200 240 280 320 360 400 440

32

30

28

26

24

22

20

18

16

14

12

10

8

6

4

2

De

pth

(cm

)

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45Mn concentration (ppm )LOI (%)

Hg concentration (ppb)Cu concentration (ppm )

0 0.4 0.8 1.2H(S)

C arbonate Fragm ents

N o C arbonate Fragm etns

1111

Foraminifers

< 16% deformityMainly Triloculina spp. (98%)

12

Proposed Methodology• Surface Samples:Surface Samples: JB- 46JB- 46 TL- 15TL- 15

• Cores:Cores: JB/TL- 2/2JB/TL- 2/2

• ForaminifersForaminifers ~300/sample~300/sample

• Grain SizeGrain Size Jobos BayJobos Bay

TORRECILLALAGOON

SUAREZCHANNEL

BLASINACREEK

ATLANTIC OCEAN

PINONESLAGOON

13

Proposed Methodology• Bulk Heavy Metal Concentration:Bulk Heavy Metal Concentration: JB/TL- 32 elements/sample; almost JB/TL- 32 elements/sample; almost complete digestion; complete digestion; ACTLABSACTLABS•Metal Bio-availability:Metal Bio-availability: Partial digestion using 1M HClPartial digestion using 1M HCl

•Heavy Metals in foraminiferal Heavy Metals in foraminiferal tests:tests: -Mn-coating removal-Mn-coating removal -Ultrasonic cleaning-Ultrasonic cleaning -300 micro-gr sample size-300 micro-gr sample size

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Proposed Methodology• TOC:TOC: On all samples (JB/TL); CoulometricOn all samples (JB/TL); Coulometric Titration methodTitration method• Cs-137 and Pb-210 dating:Cs-137 and Pb-210 dating: On all sample cores; Low Energy On all sample cores; Low Energy StandardStandard Gamma Detector Gamma Detector •Foram cultures:Foram cultures: AmmoniaAmmonia spp. spp. AmphisteginaAmphistegina spp. spp. 3 3 replicates/experimentreplicates/experiment 20 20 foraminifers/microcosmforaminifers/microcosm

1515

Proposed Data AnalysesFisher’s Index:

N= # individuals S= # of spp.

α= proportionality const.

Equitability Index:

S= # of spp.H(S)= Shannon-Weiner Index

S/e'E )S(H

Shannon-Weiner Index:

pi= proportion of the i-th spp. )pln(p)S(H ii

Se

SN

s

1

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Proposed Data AnalysesSpecies Richness: number of species/sample.

Foraminiferal Density: # individuals/gm.

% Dominance: % abundance of foram species in a sample

Ammonia-Elphidium Index:[NA/(NA + NE)]*100NA = number of Ammonia.NE = number of Elphidium.

Simpson Index: measure of diversity. 2)^p(D i

SHE Index: )ln()ln( ESH

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Proposed Data Analyses

Geo-accumulation Index:

Igeo <0 = non-contaminated Igeo >5 = highly contaminated

baselinesamplegeo ]metal[./]metal[LogI 512

Enrichment Factor:

EF <1 = no enrichment EF >50 = extremely severe

baselinesample ])Al/[]metal/([])Al/[]metal([EF

Adsorption Coefficient:

entdimseforam ]metal[ave/]metal[aveCf

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Year 2007 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Comps XField Sampling (I) XSediment/Data Processing X X X X X X X X X X

2008Sediment/Data Processing X X X X X XCulture Exp./Data Analysis X X X X X X X X X X X XField Sampling (II) XSediment/Data Processing X X X

2009Write Dissertation X X X X X X X X

MonthPROPOSED TIME TABLEPROPOSED TIME TABLE

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My thanks to:My thanks to:*Dr. Hallock (major advisor): for being a great *Dr. Hallock (major advisor): for being a great mentor andmentor and for taking me under her wingfor taking me under her wing*Dr. Green-Ruiz (co-major advisor): for providing *Dr. Green-Ruiz (co-major advisor): for providing guidanceguidance and feedback when I was just curious about this and feedback when I was just curious about this topictopic*Dr. Byrne: for your patience and insightful *Dr. Byrne: for your patience and insightful suggestionssuggestions*Dr. Hastings: for your interest and analytical *Dr. Hastings: for your interest and analytical perspectiveperspective*Dr. Flower: for your passion and *Dr. Flower: for your passion and interest in theinterest in the paleoceanographic perspective of this paleoceanographic perspective of this workwork

2020

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