化学污染物对珊瑚礁生态系统的影响研究进展

化学污染物是影响珊瑚礁生态系统健康的重要因素之一。近年来,中国沿海地区农业活动、城市工业化以及旅游业发展迅速,珊瑚礁区的环境污染问题日趋严重。珊瑚礁生态系统长期处于化学污染物的联合毒性作用下,生态风险日益增加,已受到国内外研究者的广泛关注。本文综述了该领域的重要研究进展,并从个体、细胞和分子水平重点介绍了化学污染物对珊瑚的影响,主要包括:(1)珊瑚礁对重金属和多环芳烃有明显的富集作用,可以作为该海域化学污染物污染水平的外在反映;(2)化学污染物对珊瑚幼体的影响程度比成体大;(3)抗氧化酶和特定的功能基因可被用作生物标记物(biomarker)来监测珊瑚礁生态系统的健康状况。最后,本文对我国珊瑚礁生态系统未来的研究方向进行了展望,建议在典型的珊瑚礁海域进行长期的生态学监测,并结合室内毒理学实验,筛选出敏感的生物标志物,评价珊瑚礁生态系统可能存在的生态风险,为今后珊瑚礁生态系统的保护和管理提供科学依据。

Research Progress on Effects of Chemical Pollutants on the Coral Reef Ecosystem

Chemical pollutants are one of the important factors affecting the health of coral reefs.The development of China's social economy,coastal agriculture,urban and tourism industries caused an increase of chemical poilutants in coral reef ecosystems.Due to the combination of chemical pollutants over a long time,the ecological risk index of coral reefs increases day by day,raising great attentions of scientists all over the world.The important research progress in this field was reviewed in this article,introducing the effects of chemical pollutants on the corals at individual,cellular and molecular levels.The progress includes:(1) coral reefs can well reflect the levels of chemical pollutants in marine for heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons which were obviously enriched in coral reefs;(2) chemical pollutants cause a bigger influence on the coral larvae than adults;(3) the antioxidant enzymes and functional genes can both be used as biomarkers to monitor the health of coral reef ecosystems.Finally,the direction of future research on coral reef ecosystems in China was discussed.Long-term ecological monitoring,combined with indoor exposure-experiments of coral reef ecosystems in a typical area are necessary.It will be informative to select the sensitive biomarkers to provide basic information for the protection of coral reef ecosystems and evaluate its possible environmental risk in the future.