Environmental Monitoring

Coastal marine pollution from oil spills, sewerage, industrial and agricultural chemical effluents, is of worldwide concern, with greatest impact felt in countries where indigenous populations are highly dependent on local fisheries and tourism. Paraecological studies of benthic foraminifera, thecamoebian and ostracod faunas are routinely used in the assessment and management of all types of coastal marine environments. Because these methods rely on living species that are also preserved as fossils, they are used to measure temporal variations of environmental conditions that have been "imprinted" in the sedimentary records. A multi-disciplinary approach is employed, involving, in addition, geochemistry, sedimentology and coastal oceanographic inputs. This method is especially cost-effective for monitoring the response of marine ecosystems to pollution abatement programs and to anthropogenic modifications of natural watermass characteristics and circulation in coastal settings, and has achieved success internationally in evaluation of environmental issues related to marine pollution.