Environmental quality assessment in estuarine ecosystems: use of biometric measurements and fecundity of the ragworm Nereis diversicolor (Polychaeta, Nereididae).

The ability to cope with environmental stress may be expensive in terms of energy and this cost of tolerance is suspected to have negative counterparts such as reduced growth and fecundity. To date, condition indices based on biometric measurements are currently used in bivalves or fish but do not exist in endobenthic worms, despite their interest as bioindicators for the sedimentary compartment in which the major part of pollutants is stored in aquatic environments. In the present work, several biometric variables (jaw and total body length, number of segments, the length of the first three segments L3, wet or dry weight) were measured in the ragworm Nereis diversicolor originating from clean (Authie) and polluted (Seine) estuaries (France) to study size-weight relationships. The production of oocytes by females (which represent 80-90% of the population) was quantified in the same specimens. In females from the polluted site, the condition was shown to be altered and, in parallel, the production of oocytes was lower than in females from the comparatively clean site. From an operational point of view, we recommend the use of the length L3 and the wet weight. Because fecundity is mainly dependent on size and weight in N. diversicolor, biometric measurements would be useful tools for assessing the biological quality of estuarine sediments.