Objective ASSESSMENT OF EFFECTS OF OIL POLLUTION ON THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT USING ENCLOSURE TECHNIQUES. DURING THE 2ND RESEARCH PROGRAMME ENVIRONMENT A METHOD HAS BEEN DEVELOPED TO STUDY THE FATE AND EFFECT OF HEAVY METALS AND ORGANIC COMPOUNDS ON NATURAL MARINE PLANKTON COMMUNITIES IN LARGE PLASTIC BAGS (1,5 - 3.0 M3). THIS PROJECT WILL NOW FURTHER DEVELOP THIS METHOD FOR APPLICATION TO STUDIES ON OIL POLLUTION AT SEA. IN THE MODEL PLANKTON ECOSYSTEMS (PLASTIC BAGS OF 1.5 M3 VOLUME, FILLED WITH NATURAL SEA WATER) THE EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT AMOUNTS OF CRUDE OIL ON THE INTERRELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THE DIFFERENT TROPHIC LEVELS (PHYTOPLANKTON, ZOOPLANKTON, BACTERIA) WILL BE STUDIED. IN ADDITION A SET OF THOSE PHYSICOCHEMICAL PARAMETERS WILL BE MEASURED WHICH INFLUENCE THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE BIOTA. ADDITIONAL EXPERIMENTS USING PLANKTON SYSTEMS IN WHICH PHYTOPLANTON AND BACTERIA ARE STRONGLY RELATED VIA REGENERATION OF NUTRIENTS AND PRODUCTION OF ORGANIC MATTER TWO DIFFERENT HYPOTHESES WILL BE TESTED TO EXPLAIN THE MUCH SLOWER BIODEGRADATION RATE OF ORGANIC POLLUTANTS IN ENCLOSURES WITH NATURAL PLANKTON COMMUNITIES THAN PREDICTED FROM LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS. NATURAL OLIGOTROPHIC SEA WATER WILL BE USED IN THESE EXPERIMENTS. VARIOUS AMOUNTS OF INORGANIC NUTRIENTS WILL BE ADDED TO THE ENCLOSURES. Programme(s) PRE-ENVPROT 3C - Sectoral research and development programme (EEC) in the field of environment (environmental protection and climatology) - indirect and concerted actions - Environmental protection -, 1981-1985 Topic(s) Data not available Call for proposal Data not available Funding Scheme CSC - Cost-sharing contracts Coordinator Business Unit of TNO Built Environment and Geosciences EU contribution No data Address Van mourik broekmanweg 6 2628 XE Delft Netherlands See on map Links Website Opens in new window Total cost No data