Longterm Monitoring of Human Impacts McMurdo Station, Antarctica

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Long-term Monitoring of Human Impacts McMurdo
Station, Antarctica

• Mahlon C. Kennicutt II
• and Collaborators
• Texas AM University and Texas AM University
  Corpus Christi

6th International Conference on Contaminants in
Freezing Ground, June, 2008
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• Human Occupation of McMurdo Sound

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International Framework

• 1989 Discussion of environmental monitoring of
  human impacts - ATCM XV
• 1991 - Protocol on the Environmental Protection
  The Madrid Protocol
• 1991 - Call for specialized meetings to deal with
  environmental monitoring - ATCM XVI
• 1992 - First Meeting of Experts Buenos Aires,
  Argentina
• 1994 - SCAR and COMNAP offer to convene
  workshops ATCM XVIII

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International Framework (cont.)

• 1995 -1996 - SCAR/COMNAP Workshops
• 1999 - 2005 - COMNAP Workshops and Manuals
• 2005 NSF/SCAR/COMNAP Workshop on Biological
  Indicators

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US Antarctic Program (USAP) Planning

• Review of Historical Studies and Preliminary
  Design - 1999

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• USAP Pilot Project (1999 -2001)

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The Setting
McMurdo Sound, Antarctica
McMurdo Station
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Team Deployments (2001 TEA Teacher Marietta
Cleckley) (2007 PolarTrec Teacher Anne Lindsey)
Long-Term Monitoring
Pilot Project
Go Geographer, Ge Geochemist, B Biologist,
E- Ecologist, S - Student
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Sample Collections
Long-Term Monitoring
Pilot Project
T- Terrestrial, M Marine
MORE THAN 5000 SAMPLES COLLECTED OVER 7 YEARS!!
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Terrestrial Sampling Program

• Physical/Chemical
• Vegetation coverage, snow and ice coverage,
  extent of physical disturbance, permafrost depth,
  total organic carbon, total inorganic carbon,
  grain size and moisture content.

• Contaminants
• Total petroleum hydrocarbons (petroleum spills or
  leaks) and trace metals (metals - dust, solid
  waste disposal).

• Runoff
• Total suspended solids, salinity, pH, selected
  trace metals, and TPH.

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The Growth of McMurdo Station
Population
Physical Disturbance
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The Growth of McMurdo Station (cont.)
Fuel Tank Storage Capacity
Number of Buildings and Area
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(No Transcript)
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TPH (ppm) Concentrations - Terrestrial Soils
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TPH (ppm) Concentrations - Terrestrial Soils
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Probability of TPH Concentrations gt 30ppm
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High TPH and Fuel Spills
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Pb Concentrations (ppm) - Terrestrial Soils
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Pb Concentrations (ppm) - Terrestrial Soils
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Probability of Pb Concentrations gt 10ppm
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Terrestrial Monitoring Results

• Disturbance of physical surfaces on land occurred
  during the early years of the Stations history.
• The most prevalent contaminants detected are
  hydrocarbons derived form fuel.
• Most soils contain levels of hydrocarbons that
  would NOT be expected to elicit acute or chronic
  biological responses.
• Most contaminant metals on the land surface are
  generally at or near background level.
• Most surficial soils contain levels of metals
  that would NOT be expected to elicit acute or
  chronic biological effects.

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Marine Sampling Program

• Contaminants in sediments hydrocarbons, PCBs,
  metals, sediment toxicological tests.
• Biological tissues hydrocarbons and PCBs.
• Benthic infaunal communities community
  structure, species diversity, abundance and
  biomass, photo- documentation of epibenthic
  community structure, species diversity, and
  abundance.
• Marine sediments coliform bacteria, grain size,
  total organic carbon content, and percent
  moisture.

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Marine Sampling Program (cont.)

• Design elements
• Fixed stations at historical locations
• Random stations through area
• Long-term monitoring
• Indicator Variables
• Benthos bottom-dwelling organisms
• Memory of ecosystem
• Macroinfauna are sessile, long-lived, integrators
• Sediment quality triad
• Ecological, biological and chemical indicators
• Benthic macrofaunal community, bacterial
  toxicity, and sediment contaminants

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Marine Sampling Program (cont.)

• Fixed-point (2000)
• Probabilistic (2001)
• Fixed-point 2003 to present with reduced sampling

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Marine Sampling Program (cont.)

• Sediments Cores Collected by Divers

• Sediment chemical analyses
• Sediment toxicity
• Sediment communities

Robbins, 2004
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Sediment Toxicity Testing

• Samples were stored at 4oC until analysis
• Microtox 500 analyzer
• Bioluminescent bacteria
• Vibrio fischeri
• EC50 (mg/l)

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Macroinfauna Community Analysis

• Sediment cores (6.7 cm diameter) and sampled to
  a depth of 10 cm
• Preserved, stained, and sieved on 500 mm sieve
• Identified to lowest possible taxa
• Analyzed with a Benthic-Index of Biotic
  Integrity (B-IBI)

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Benthic Succession Model

• Long history (since 1976)
• Distance from pollution is analogous to time
  since a disturbance
• Early vs. Late succession
• Pioneer vs. climax species
• Size, number, life history
• Surface vs. deep dwellers
• Interface vs. deposit feeders
• Low vs. high diversity

Rhoads, McCall and Yingst, 1978
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Winter Quarters Bay Succession
Undisturbed Zone Transitory Zone
Disturbed Zone Axiothella sp.
Syllidia inermis Capitella
sp. Brania rhopalophora
Lumbrineris sp. Ophyotrocha
claparedii Spiophanes bombyx
Hauchiella tribullata Tharyx
cincinnatus Laonice cirrata
Lysilla loveni macintoshi
Haploscoloplus sp. Sphaerosyllis hirsuta
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Macroinfauna Benthic-Index of Biotic
Integrity(BIBI)

• Threshold criteria are developed using 90
  confidence intervals to rank stations
• A high rank indicates a healthy environment and a
  low rank indicates a disturbed environment

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Winter Quarters Bay B-IBI Results
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Sediment Quality Triad
Meiofauna
Macrofauna
Long and Chapman, 1985 Montagna and Green 1996
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Marine Benthic Monitoring Results

• The fixed-point design is better at detecting the
  intensity of alteration because disturbance of
  the marine ecosystem at McMurdo Station is
  localized within a mall area
• There has been no significant change in the
  macrofauna or sediment toxicity from 2000 to
  2004
• The contamination in the marine
• ecosystem continues to be localized
• and does not show signs of an
• increasing footprint

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Marine Benthic Monitoring Results (cont.)

• Historical disposal practices in Winter Quarters
  Bay contaminated bottom sediments.
• WQB sediments are contaminated with PCB, PCT,
  petroleum hydrocarbons, metals, and debris of
  various types.
• The contaminated area of WQB appears to be stable
  within a silled basin, but far-field sampling
  could prove this incorrect.
• Contaminants are detectable in the tissues of
  local marine benthic organisms.

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Marine Benthic Monitoring Results (cont.)

• WQB Sedimentary organic contaminant compositions
  are similar to unaltered source materials
  demonstrating little degradation years after
  release to the environment.
• Marine benthic communities adjacent to the
  Station have reduced ecological integrity, which
  correlates with contamination by toxic
  chemicals.

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General Conclusions

• Monitoring is a multivariate problem
• Solution to analyzing large multivariate data
  sets
• Parametric approach to compare environmental
  variables
• Creates a new set of uncorrelated variables in
  order of decreasing variance
• Correlations test for biological responses to
  environmental factors
• Protects experiment-wise error rate

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General Conclusions(cont.)

• Non-parametric approach to compare community
  responses
• Multi-dimensional scaling (MDS)
• Solves the problem in community data where there
  are matrices with lots of zeros (i.e., lack of
  co-occurrence is not interesting)
• Sediment Quality Triad (SQT)
• Chemical Contaminants
• Toxicity Assay
• Community Ecological Response
• Benthic Index of Biotic Integrity (BIBI)

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Monitoring Design Limitations

• Once a year sampling - potential to miss short
  term variations and events after the sampling.
• Two-dimensional - the vertical variations in
  contaminants may be significant in some
  locations (WQB)
• Spatial coverage in WQB - depth limited by diver
  access and spatial coverage by difficult
  sampling conditions
• Little or no sampling of ice covered areas on and
  offshore, air, or water quality (presumed in the
  latter two cases to be minor but may need
  occasional checking)
• Controls - particularly in the marine setting.

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Major Recommendations

• The core monitoring program conducted during the
  Phases 1 to 4 is adequate to establish the
  status and trends in human impacts at McMurdo
  Station.
• An additional 3- station marine control transect
  is needed more distant from the Station.
• The Microtox method must be refined to improve
  efficacy of the test or it should be replaced.

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Major Recommendations

• The Monitoring Program should be expanded to
  other USAP facilities (i.e., Palmer Station).
• Far-field marine sampling should be added to more
  accurately define the extent of marine benthic
  disturbances adjacent to the Station.

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Moderate Recommendations

• Enhance the terrestrial sampling to better
  resolve areas of known impact.
• Augment the intensive sampling plan to better
  document changes in the spatial extent of
  heavily impacted areas.

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Minor Recommendations

• Adjust the control sites by eliminating and
  adding sites.
• Institute sampling efforts prior to major
  construction projects at the Station.
• Discontinue soil carbon measurements

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Program Enhancements

• Screen samples for additional contaminants (i.e.,
  PDBE, TBT, PCT).
• Intense sampling in high TPH areas to assess
  degradation rates.
• Collect and analyze additional run-off samples.
• Institute sampling to contribute data on
  Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) in air in
  response to the Stockholm Convention.

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• Thank you for your attention!
• Questions?

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