USING BENTHIC FORAMINIFERA TO ASSESS WATER QUALITY AND POLLUTION IN COASTAL FLORIDA

Anthropogenic pollution is a problem in coastal Florida. Benthic foraminifera were used to assess the water quality and environmental condition of two locations in Florida. Fenholloway River in Taylor County was declared an industrial river by the Florida Legislature in 1947 and in 1954 Buckeye Mill, a pulp and paper mill in Perry, began discharging effluent into the river. This river empties into Appalachee Bay, which is heavily fished and shellfish are collected at beaches near the mouth of the river. Environmental problems, such as a decrease in crustacean diversity and the masculinization of female mosquitofish, have been observed in Fenholloway River. Bay County, Florida is the location of the popular tourist destination Panama City. To the south of the city lies St. Andrew Bay, a 27,900 hectare (69,000 acre) high-salinity estuary, which was designated an aquatic preserve. Sediments from the open bay are mostly considered to be free of environmental contamination, but acute pollution has been seen in some of the 59 bayous of the bay system. Watson Bayou has been impacted by a variety of activities including runoff from a saw mill and a paper mill, fuel storage, wastewater treatment plants, boat construction, commercial fishing and residential development. Benthic foraminifera assemblages were analyzed from surface sediments collected from Fenholloway River, Appalachee Bay and Watson Bayou. These assemblages were compared with those from sediments collected from control sites located in Econfina River, located northwest of Fenholloway River with a similar sized drainage, and the West Bay region of St. Andrew Bay. The assemblages will be evaluated by quantitative analysis of population density, species diversity, assemblage structure and shell morphology and deformation. Preliminary results from Fenholloway River and Watson Bayou show an increased percentage of agglutinated species and decreased diversity when compared with samples from the control sites. These results indicate that foraminiferal assemblages have potential to be used to monitor the impact of anthropogenic pollution in Florida. Sediment cores were collected from the Fenholloway River and Appalchee Bay to determine if benthic foraminifera can be used to date the onset of pollution in the river or if they can track recent changes in land-use.