Marine Pollution Bulletin

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33 15 1924123 3

Abu Safah Spring SensliMIty map

25 ~0 16~6 3 617199 429 12 3 ~2 4622 5 9 84 6 24 5 7 3

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Zu+o~ development
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Fig. 9 SEP locations after4.5 days during a spring spill.

Fig. I I Sensitivity map for Abu Safah-information provided by Arabian American Oil Company (ARAMCO).

I
Summer

AboSarah

the Saudi A r a b i a n coastline and the other toward the gulf of Bahrain and Qatar. The S u m m e r spill, however, poses a great threat to the D a m m a m port area and the shrimp breeding grounds of Tarut Bay (Fig. 11) whereas the Spring spill impacts further north, threatening some oil industry sites. The authors would like to thank the Arabian American Oil Company, ARAMCO, for its support during the course of this research project and especially the efforts of its Environmental Affairs Departmerit.
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AI-Mugairan,S.A. (1979). Oil fields of Saudi Arabia. Thesis, University of Riyadh, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Blokker, P. C. (1964). Spreadingand evaporation of petroleum products
onwater. Proc. Fourthlnt. HarbourConf.,Antwerp, pp. 911-919.

~ , , , : ,

~ i , i , , t ~ , , , , ~ ~

Fig. 10 SEP locations after 4.5 days during a summer spill.

ational beaches, lie in this region. A m a j o r shrimp area could be threatened as well (Fig. 8). Little variation in risk due to seasonal changes was noted for the Safaniya region. This was not the case for the A b u Safah spill simulation. Figures 9 and 10 present the oil risk situation four a n d half days after the spill occurence if it had occurred in the spring or summer respectively. Both show the tendency for the spill to split into two parts with one part moving toward

Jeffery, P. G. (1973). Large-scaleexperimentson spreading of oil at sea and its disappearance by natural factors. P r o c . J o i n t C o n f . o n Prevention and Control o f O i l S p i l l s , Washington D.C., pp. 469-474. Lehr, W. J. & Cekirge, H. M+ (1980). Oil slick movements in the Arabian Gulf. P r o c . P e t r o m a r 8 0 - - P e t r o l e u m and Marine Environment Conf., Monaco, pp. 677-683. Mackay, D. & Leinonen, P. J. (1977). Mathematical Model of the Behavior of Oil Spills on Water with Natural and Chemical Dispersion. Economic and TechnicalReview Report EPS-3-EC-77-19. NOCD(Naval Oceanography Command Detachment) (1980). Climatic Study of the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman. NODC(National Oceanographic Data Center) (1980). Surface Current Data System. Williams,R. O. (1979). M e t e o r o l o g i c and Oceanographic Data Book. Arabian AmericanOil Co., Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.

A/larme Pollution Bulletin, Vo[. 12, No. 11, pp. 374-378, 1981 Printed in (.;teat Britain

1)025-326X/81 / 110374-05 $02.00/1.) 1981 Perganlon Pre,~ Ltd.

Effects of Oil on Water Filtration by Exposed Sandy Beaches

A N T O N M c L A C H L A N and BERYL H A R T Y

Zoology Department, University of Port Elizabeth, P.O. Box 1600, Port Elizabeth 6000, South Africa
The most important natural function of exposed sandy beaches is the filtration of large volumes of sea water which are flushed through the interstitial pore system by the actions of tides and waves. In this process organic material is mineralized by the interstitial fauna and nutrients returned to the sea. This paper examines the physical effects of oil in blocking or reducing this filtration. Reduced f'dtration of sea water may be caused by prevention or retardation of interstitial water flow and/or decrease in pore space. The 374 magnitude of the effects depends on the volume of oil, its state of weathering, its location on the beach and its degree of admixture with sand. It appears that under all but the heaviest conditions of pollution these effects are relatively small and only become significant in situ when discrete Myers of weathered oil occur near the surface in the upper intertidal zone where maximum water input normally occurs.

Volume 12/Number I I / N o v e m b e r 1981

There is a general paucity of studies on effects of oil pollution on ecosystems or major processes within ecosystems (Mann & Clark, 1978). Evaluation of pollution effects on single species may have little relevance to whole environments and attention needs to be shifted to communities or ecosystems. To investigate effects of oil pollution on ecosystem function a sound knowledge of the ecosystem is essential to identify key ecosystem processes, whether biotic or abiotic, for study. In view of the lack of studies of exposed sandy beaches at ecosystem level it is not surprising that there has been no attempt to identify the major processes in these environments and to evaluate the sensitivity of these processes to oil pollution, Exposed sandy beaches are physically structured ecosystems where the dominant feature is wave action and the key processes resulting from this are (1) surf circulation patterns and sediment movement and (2) water filtration by the sediments, predominantly in the intertidal zone. This water filtration, which leads to biological mineralization of dissolved and particulate organics and regeneration of inorganic nutrients, is the most important biological process on exposed sandy beaches. Beaches in the East Cape, South Africa, filter on average 10v litres per kilometre shoreline daily, the biological mineralization driven by this accounting for the bulk of the oxygen demand of these beaches, even in areas with exceptionally rich macrofaunas (McLachlanetal., 1981). The aim of this work was to make a preliminary assessment, at a purely physical level, of effects of oil on water filtration by beaches using a combination of laboratory experiments and in situ measurements,

Materials and Methods

Laboratory studies aimed to assess (1) effects of different concentrations of fresh and weathered crude oil on the porosity of fine and medium sands, (2) rates of spreading of oil through sand and (3) effects of similar oils on water flow rates through fine sands when mixed with the sand and when in discrete layers (horizons). Fieldwork attempted to see whether reduced filtration volumes could be recorded in situ under conditions of moderate pollution. Two grades of well sorted quartz sands (< 30% CaCOs), 210 and 300 ~m median particle diameters, were collected from beaches near Port Elizabeth. Moisture contents of saturated sand were determined on a mass basis using a Speedy Moisture Tester (England: Thomas Ashworth). Similar determinations were then repeated in duplicate after admixture of different volumes of oil with the sand. Spreading of fresh oil and 1.5 months weathered oil was assessed by pouring 50 cm 3 of oil into wells in dry sand or at the water table in wet sand of 210 ~m median particle diameter. Samples were then taken after one week, two months and four months at distances of 5, 10 and 15 cm laterally from the oil using a plastic corer of 0.5 cm internal diameter. Vertical sinking rates of fresh and weathered oil were estimated by pouring 50 cm 3 fresh or weathered oil on top of a container of dry sand of 210 or 300/~m median particle diameter and taking cores at similar depths below the surface at similar time intervals. Oil levels in the sand were assayed using the spectrophotometric method of Hennig (1979).

Effects of oil on water flow were evaluated using PVC tubes (0.8 m long, 0.185 m internal diameter) with sealed bases containing 5 m m outlet hoses protected by 200 ~m nylon gauze. The hoses were positioned such that a 5 cm water table was formed in the base of each tube. The tubes were then packed with sand of 210 /~m median particle diameter to a depth of 50 cm. Besides a control of clean sand, various mixtures of oil and sand were used; also mixtures with fresh oil and 10% Chemserve OSE 750, a solvent-based dispersant and, finally, clean sand with a 1 cm layer of oil of different degrees of weathering 5 cm below the surface. A section of beach of the same surface area filters about 41. sea water per tidal cycle (McLachlan, 1979) so this volume of water was poured into the top of each tube and outflow monitored at 5-min. intervals. These results were plotted as a cumulative percentage outflow to obtain TT~ values, these being the times taken for 75 % of the water, i.e. 3 1. to drain through the sand columns. In situ experiments were done by measuring the volumes of sea water filtered through the intertidal at clean and oiled sites using the methods of Riedl (1971) as modified by McLachlan (1979). Two experiments were done on a beach of 250/~m sand where two transect profiles, 5 m apart, were surveyed and marked with metal rods at 1 m intervals. One transect served as the control while the other was oiled. As they were placed close together in an area of uniform beach slope the results should be closely comparable. In the first experiment 801. of 1.5 month weathered crude oil were spread over an excavated area 1.2 m wide, 10 m long, 5-20 cm deep and lying in the upper intertidal just below the berm. The resulting oil layer, 0.6 cm thick on average, was then covered by sand. In the second experiment 501. of 24 h weathered oil was poured on the surface over an area I x 10 m in the same part of the beach to give the equivalent of a 0.5 cm layer. Readings were taken for 15 min. every hour over a full tidal cycle. The method essentially involves measuring the volume of water flushed into the sand by each swash that runs far enough up the beach to reach unsaturated sand. The dimensions of the unsaturated area saturated by the swash are measured as (1) its horizontal length from the point where the water table meets the sand surface before arrival of the swash to the highest point reached by the swash and (2) the depth of the water table at the latter point before it was reached by the swash. These two dimensions define a wedge-shaped body of sand whose pore spaces are flushed with water by the swash. Separate measurements are made of the amount of available pore space, the saturation gap, for different heights above the water table. Results were analysed by computer.

Results Effectsofdifferentvolumesoffreshandweatheredoilon porosity of 210 and 300/~m sands are illustrated in Fig. 1. As no significant difference was found between fresh and weathered oils the results for these two have been pooled. However, it was found not possible to obtain a proper mixture of sand and 1.5 month weathered oil when the latter made up more than 12% of total sand volume. Up to 16% oil by volume porosity decreased linearly in both grades of sandalthoughtheamountofporespacereduced(upto20% reduction or 6% of total sand volume) was less than the 375

Marine Pollution Bulletin

251

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Fig. 1 Porosity of sands of 210 and 3 0 0 / a m median particle diameter

(solid and open circles respectively) as a function of oil concentration. Lines fitted by eye. Values for fresh and weathered crude oil have been pooled,

Fig. 2 Time taken for 75070 outflow of sea water through 2 1 0 / a m sand columns subjected to mixture with different concentrations of 1.5

months weathered and fresh oil.

amount of oil added (up to 1670 total sand volume). In the case of weathered oil, volumes greater than 12070 total sand volumes cause little further reduction in pore space as the oil remains discrete and thorough mixing cannot occur, Although fresh oil has a greater effect than weathered oil, it also gets flushed out of the sand by water and weathers at the same time, so that its pore-clogging effect should reduce considerably with time. Results of oil spreading experiments are given in Table 1. This indicates (1) that fresh oil spread more than weathered oil; (2) spreading occurred laterally at the water table whereas mainly vertical sinking occurred in dry sand and (3) that spreading rates are low, around 5 cm in several months ifthereisnodisturbance, Results of the addition of oil mixtures and oil horizons on water flow through sand columns are listed in Table 2. Treatments with fresh oil and fresh oil mixed with dispersant gave very scattered values and did not differ significantly but had significantly less retarding effect than treatment with 1.5 months weathered oil mixed with sand (t-test, p < 0.05). This is illustrated in Fig. 2 where T75 is plotted against oil concentration for both the weathered oil and the combined treatments with fresh oil. In both cases T75 decreased

logarithmically with increasing oil concentration. However, where T75 was doubled by admixture of only 10070 oil weathered for 1.5 months, doubled T75 only occurred after admixtureofabout20%freshoil. In the case of fresh oil and fresh oil/dispersant mixtures, much of the oil is flushed out of the columns with the water and this leads to increased flow rates. Discrete layers of oil clearly have a greater retarding effect on water flow than oil mixtures (Table 1), this effect being greater the more weathered the oil. In the case of fresh oil mixed withdispersant T75decreased. In mosttreatments the retardation tended to increase with time, i.e. flow rates decreased over several weeks, presumably as a result of both the weathering of oil in the columns and the possible accumulation of organics in oily areas causing clogging. The results of the two in situ experiments are illustrated in Figs 3 and 4. In the first experiment the beach was fairly steep (slope 1 : 18) with a distinct berm. As typically occurs, the bulk of the water input to the interstitial system occurred before and during the high tide on the upper part of the intertidal zone in the region where the oil layer was buried. It is clearly evident (Fig. 3) that while the input area was over the oil layer (10:00-12:20 h and 15:00-17:00 h) water input

TABLE 1 Oil concentrations ( m g 1_ 1 _ control values) for fresh and weathered oil spreading (a) laterally in dry and wet sand of 2 1 0 / a m a n d (b) sinking in dry sand of 210and 310/am.
I week 2 months 4 months

(a) Treatment Fresh oil at water table Fresh oil in dry sand Weathered oil at water table Weathered oil in dry sand

15cm
0 0 0 0

10cm
0 0 0 0

5cm
0 0 1 0

15cm
2 1 1 1

10cm
3 1 1 2

5cm
3 3 48 1

15cm
3 0 0 0

10cm
18 1 11 3

5cm
836 5 28 0

(b) T r e a t m e n t

3 cm 6 17 11 1

2 weeks 6 cm 10 113 9 12

9 cm 12 293 893 4 193

3 cm 5 23 4 5

1month 6 cm 22 593 5 25

9 cm 1923 813 693 793

3 cm 21 3 -

3 months 6 cm 0 4 -

9 cm 4653 2593 -

Fresh oil on dry sand 210/am F r e s h oil on dry sand 300/am Weathered oil on dry sand 210/am Weathered oil on dry sand 300/am

376

Volume 1 2 / N u m b e r I l / N o v e m b e r 1981

TABLE 2
Time t a k e n for 75 070o u t f l o w (T75 in minutes) of 41. sea water t h r o u g h a 50 cm c o l u m n of 210 ~m sand subjected to various treatments with oil. All values means o f 2 - 6 replicates. T r e a t m e n t , oil weathering in m o n t h s Sand condition (oil 070by volume) Clean 27o oil mixture 4070 oil mixture 807o oil mixture 12070 oil mixture 16070 oil mixture I cm oil layer (2%) Control 22 4 months weathered . -__ 57 . 25 28 37 47 83 46 1.5 m o n t h s weathered . . 29 27 31 29 35 48 24 25 30 29 45 37 Fresh Fresh + 10%0 dispersant

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1600 1800 2000

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Fig. 3 Profile of study beach showing position of the buried layer of 1.5 m weathered oil and the volumesof water filtered t h r o u g h the clean a n d oiled sites.

reduced at the polluted site. This was because the oil layer slowed down seepage of water to deeper layers. During the short period around high tide, however, when the input area was above the oiled layer, input at the polluted site rapidly increased to exceed that at the clean site. This was a result of swashes at the polluted site overrunning saturated layers above the oil and thus having more impetus to run higher up the shore. The average dimensions of the sand wedges flushed with water at the two sites differed significantly. Mean wedge lengths were 2.09 and 1.87 m at the clean and oiled sites respectively and differed significantly (t-test, p < 0.05) while wedge depths were 16.2 and 12.8 cm respectively and were highly significantly different (t-test, p < 0.005). The total filtered volumes were 4600 1. m - 1 tide- 1 and 4000 1_ 1 . m - 1 tide- ~at the clean and oiled sites respectively, making a 13 %0 decrease due to the oil. The predicted volume (McLachlan, 1981) for these conditions of particle size, slope and tide range is 4400 1. m - J . tide- 1,4.5 %0below the measured value. I n the second experiment conditions were generally similar but the oil rapidly sank into the sand and some of it
was

Slope~'2o H W S ~ ~ 0

was flushed out visibly once reached by the tide. There were no significant differences in filtered volumes which were 7450 1. m-1 . tide-~ and 7200 1. m - l . tide-~ on the clean and oiled sites respectively, a difference of 3%. Predicted filtered volume was 4800 1. m -I . tide -~, 35% below the measured value (McLachlan, 1981). This large difference was due to the study area receiving a large amount of locally generated swell and thus having a greater than usual swash frequency during the experiment.

Discussion
_

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HT Time, h

Fig. 4 Profile of study beach s h o w i n g the position o f the 24 h weathered oil p o u r e d o n the sand surface and the volumes of sea water filtered t h r o u g h the clean and oiled sites,

Mousse, weathered oil or tar penetrate sediments far less easily than sheen, dispersed or fresh oil (Vandermeulen et a/., 1979). While fresh oil easily drains into sediments, much of it is just as easily flushed out and it is only once it is in weathered form that oil becomes relatively immobile in sediments. Such oil tends usually to accumulate around the drift line in discrete layers where it may be buried and/or sink down, the rate depending on the coarseness of sediments, till it comes to rest at the water table (Vandermeulen & Gordon, 1976; Long et al., 1979; Giere, 1979). As the undisturbed rate of spreading of such oil is very low, it contaminates by burial rather than percolation (Vandermeulen et aL, 1979). While fresh oil or lighter fractions may therefore be dispersed throughout the sediment body and even washed back t o s e a by percolation and flushing, weathered oil and mousse generally end up as 377

Marine Pollution Bulletin

fairly discrete buried layers at upper tide levels. Here this oil will either remain or, if there is sufficient flushing, ground water flow or sediment mobility, it may gradually re-enter the sea over long periods (Vandermeulen & Gordon, 1976). In terms of a beach's function in water filtration and purification, fresh oil appears to have little or no physical effects, being either flushed out of the sediment or finely dispersed within it. Experiments here showed that even 10070 mixtures of fresh oil with sand (higher than are likely to occur in situ (Vandermeulen el aL, 1979))have little effect on flow rate in the laboratory or water filtration in situ and much of the oil is rapidly flushed out of the sediment and dispersed. Further, at these concentrations very little reduction of pore space o c c u r s . Weathered oil, both in oil/sand mixtures, which seldom occur in situ, or more discrete layers, which is the normal condition, has a significant effect on water flow. Discrete oil layers have a particularly severe effect on water flow through sand. This can, however, only affect water filtration by the beach if (1) it occurs in the intertidal, particularly the upper parts of the intertidal and (2) it forms intact layers, especially close to the surface, While fresh oil tends to form a mixture of oil in sand, with most pore space still available for water flow, discrete or weathered oil tends to form mixtures of sartd in oil with virtually no pore space available for water flow. In the latter case most water flows through gaps in the oil layer. It has been shown, however, that even when an oil layer occurs in the most sensitive part of the beach, it still only reduces water filtration to a small extent (13 070). Oil is unlikely to remain in such a position for long as it is usually moved towards the drift line. It m u s t therefore be concluded that effects of oil on exposed beaches, other than spills heavy enough to totally blanket the shore, are not normally sufficient to have a serious effect on the volumes of sea water filtered by the beach.

As water flow through beaches is a complex process involving two stages, both (1) physical filtration of large volumes of sea water and (2) biological purification of this water, the apparent absence of serious effects of oil on the former process does not imply that the second stage will be unaffected. Effects on interstitial fauna by soluble fractions and/or dispersants percolating through the sand need to be investigated further.
This work was funded by the South African Council for Scientific and

Industrial Research. We thank various members of the Zoology

Department of the University of Port Elizabeth for assistance with field and laboratory work and Mrs A. J. Gerber for typing the manuscript. Giere, O. (1979). The impact of oil pollution on intertidal meiofauna. Field studies after the La Cortina-spill, May 1976. Cah. Biol. mar., 20,

231-251.
Hennig, H.F.-K. O. (1979). Quantitative analysis of residual fuel oil in sediments sampled by absorption spectrophotometry. Mar. Pollut,

Bull., 10, 234-237.

Long, B.F.,Vandermeulen, J.H.&Buckley, D.E.(1979).Lesprocessus dela migration du petroleechonedanslesestraus sableux: contamination des sappes phreatiques. Journ6e sp#ciale "'Amoco Cadiz", Brest,

France, 18pp.

Mann, K. H. & Clark, R. B. (1978). Long-term effects of oil spills on marine intertidal communities. J. Fish. Res. Bd Can., 35,791-795. McLachlan, A. (1979). Volumes of sea water filtered by East Cape sandy

beaches. S. Afr. J. Sci., 75, 75-79.

McLachlan, A. (1981). A model for the estimation of water filtration and nutrient generation by exposed sandy beaches. Mar. Envir. Res. (in press). McLachlan, A., Erasmus, T., Dye, A. H., Wooldridge, T., Van Der Horst, G., Rossouw, G., Lasiak, T. A. & McGwyune, L. (1981). Sand beach energetics; an ecosystems approach towards a high energy interface. Estuar. cstl. shelf Sci. (in press). Riedl, R. (1979). How much seawater passes through sandy beaches? Int. Rev. Hydrobiol. Hydrogr., 56, 923-946. Vandermeulen, J. H. & Gordon, D. C. (1976). Re-entry of 5-year-old stranded Bunker C fuel oil from a low energy beach into the water, sediments, and biota of Chedabucto Bay, Nova Scotia. J. Fbh. Res. Bd

Can., 33,2002-2010.
Vandermeulen, J. H., Buckley, D. E., Levy, E. M., Long, B. F. N., McLaren, P. & Wells, P. G. (1979). Sediment penetration of A m o c o Cadiz oil, potential for future release, and toxicity. Mar. Pollut. Bull.,

10,222-227,

MarinePollutionBulletin, Vo[.12, No. II. pp. 378-381, 1981 Prinledin GrealBritain

0025-326X/81/I 103784)4$02.00/0 1981PergamonPres~Lid.

Nematode/Copepod Ratios for Momtoring Pollution: A Rebuttal*

B. C. C O U L L t , G. R. F. HICKS 4: and J. B. J. WELLS

t Belle W. Baruch Institute for Marine Biology and Coastal Research and Department of Biology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC29208, USA * NationalMuseum of New Zealand, Private Bag, Wellington, New Zealand Zoology Department, Victoria University of Wellington, Private Bag, Wellington, New Zealand
The nematode/copepod ratio recently proposed by Raffaelli & Mason is not a valid tool for assessing pollution, We found many discrepancies in the original paper a n d felt obliged to point them out. There was no quantitative assessment of contagion; and seasonal variation was great,
*Contribution No. 409, Belle W. Baruch Institute, University of South Carolina, 378

two factors which could alter the ratio. We partitioned the original data into Raffaeili & Mason's and others and found that the ratio was not significantly correlated with grainsize when using the literature values. There are several exceptions to their statement that nematodes dominate in organically enriched sites and that there are not copepods in deep water samples. We do not believe that reducing the very complex meiofaunai community structure to a single