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The Effects of Treated Sewage Discharge on the Biota of Port Phillip Bay, Victoria, Australia

  • Chapter
Estuaries and Nutrients

Part of the book series: Contemporary Issues in Science and Society ((CISS))

Abstract

The Werribee sewage-treatment farm contributes more than half of the total nitrogen and phosphorus input to Port Phillip Bay. This study attempted to determine the fate of these nutrients and their effect on the biota of the Bay. This was addressed by comparing community composition, biomass, productivity, or process rate in the Werribee area of the Bay with that in Bay areas more remote from nutrient discharge.

Rates of bacterial nitrification and denitrification were greatest in sediments closest to the sewage discharge point. Up to 15 percent of the inorganic nitrogen discharge may be lost via sequential nitrification-denitrification in a 4 km2 area. Epibenthic microalgal biomass and productivity were found to be five times sgreater at Werribee than at a control station. The Werribee macrophyte community showed reduced species diversity, dominance of fast growing opportunistic species, loss of large brown algal species, and occasional algal blooms, as compared to communities in nutrient-poor areas of the Bay. Classification analysis revealed offshore and nearshore groups of macrobenthos in a 2 km2 area at Werribee; species diversity was greatest offshore. The Werribee offshore macrofauna was typical of that along the whole northwestern coast of the Bay. In summer, fish biomass at Werribee was equal to that found at stations remote from sewage discharge, however community composition differed. At Werribee, the nearshore fish community was dominated by juveniles and small species, while offshore older and larger fish were more abundant. Phytoplankton productivity decreased with increasing distance from sewage outfalls only during summer. Nitrogen is probably the nutrient critical to phytoplankton biomass production in the Bay but light and/or temperature may limit productivity over much of the non-summer period. Baywide phytoplankton productivity was similar to that of non-eutrophic coastal marine waters. Zooplankton standing crop was low compared to that for many estuaries and marine embayments. Densities of zooplankton in the Werribee area were highly variable, and crustacean species found at Werribee were also distributed throughout the Bay.

These findings suggest that sewage discharge has affected benthic more than planktonic communities, but that the measurable impact of the discharge is limited to a few hundred meters around the outfalls.

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Author information

Author notes

  1. G. C. B. Poore

    Present address: National Museum of Victoria, Russell St., Melbourne, Victoria, 3000, Australia

  2. J. Bauld

    Present address: Baas-Becking Geobiological Laboratory, CSIRO Fuel Geoscience Unit, P.O. Box 378, Canberra, A.C.T., 2601, Australia

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Marine Studies Branch, Ministry for Conservation, P.O. Box 114, Queenscliff, Victoria, 3225, Australia

    D. M. Axelrad, G. C. B. Poore, G. H. Arnott, R. R. C. Edwards & N. J. Hickman

  2. School of Microbiology, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, 3052, Australia

    J. Bauld

  3. Department of Botany, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, 3052, Australia

    V. Brown

Authors
  1. D. M. Axelrad
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  6. R. R. C. Edwards
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Virginia Institute of Marine Science, USA

    Bruce J. Neilson

  2. Chesapeake Research Consortium, USA

    Lewis Eugene Cronin

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Axelrad, D.M. et al. (1981). The Effects of Treated Sewage Discharge on the Biota of Port Phillip Bay, Victoria, Australia. In: Neilson, B.J., Cronin, L.E. (eds) Estuaries and Nutrients. Contemporary Issues in Science and Society. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-5826-1_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-5826-1_13

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-5828-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-5826-1

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