Tolerance and genetic relatedness of three meiobenthic copepod populations exposed to sediment-associated contaminant mixtures: Role of environmental history

Meiobenthic copepod populations (Microarthridion littorale) were collected from three South Carolina, USA, estuaries having different pollution stress histories (i.e., pristine sediments, high polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon [PAH] sediments, high metals/moderate PAH sediments) and then assayed for survival and reproductive output in 14‐d exposures to pristine and heavily PAH/metals‐contaminated sediments. Whole‐sediment reproduction bioassays were used to determine whether copepods exposed to a highly contaminated sediment mixture exhibited differential survival and reproductive outputs as a function of previous environmental histories and whether genetic relatedness among populations measured as DNA sequences of the mitochondrial gene, cytochrome apoenzyme b, were linked to copepod contaminant tolerance. Overall, adult survival and reproductive success in contaminated sediments were significantly reduced relative to controls for all three populations irrespective of environmental histories. Differential resistance to sediment‐contaminant mixtures by the two copepod populations inhabiting the contaminated sites was not found, despite their previous exposures to mixed contaminants at ΣPAH and ΣMetal concentrations of 7,287 to 2,467 ng/g dry wt and 461 to 3,497 μg/g, respectively. Significant genetic differentiation, however, was found between copepod populations from the control and the two contaminated sites. Generally, cross‐population survival and reproductive outputs were not significantly different and could not be linked to genetic differentiation at the population level.