A manipulative field experiment examining the effect of contaminated sediment on the recruitment of soft-sediment infauna (Mar 1998 - Feb 1999).

Four locations were used, a polluted bay adjacent to an old disused tip site (Brown Bay), a bay adjacent to the Casey Station sewage outfall, and two undisturbed control locations in O'Brien Bay. At each location two types of defaunated sediment (polluted and control) were placed 12 - 18 m, in experimental trays.

Half of the experimental sediments were left in place over the Austral winter, from March - November, and the remaining sediments were collected after a total of one year, in February 1999. There were large differences in recruitment between the two locations and significant differences between the polluted and control sediment. There were not only differences in abundance of taxa and assemblage structure but also in spatial variability and variability of populations of certain taxa, with recruitment to the control locations more variable than polluted locations, and recruitment in the control sediment more variable than the polluted sediment.