Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T09:38:06.082Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The bottom fauna of china clay waste deposits in Mevagissey Bay

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

P. K. Probert
Affiliation:
Portobello Marine Biological Station, Portobello, Otago, New Zealand

Extract

The mining of china clay in Cornwall is an industry dating from the middle of the eighteenth century, and one which has grown to major prominence in the south-western peninsula, as illustrated by the historical accounts of Barton (1966) and Hudson (1969).

Present-day mining processes give rise to two main types of particulate waste. The coarser waste, or tip-sand, is deposited on land to form the massive white tips which characterize the scenery of the Cornish china clay mining areas, although small amounts may be used locally as a building aggregate. The finer-grained waste, known as micaceous residue, is produced in lesser quantities and is disposed of in a different manner.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1975

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allen, E. J. & Todd, R. A., 1900. The fauna of the Salcombe Estuary. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 6, 151217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barton, R. M., 1966. A history of the Cornish china-clay industry. 212 pp. Truro: Bradford Barton.Google Scholar
Bellan, G., 1967. Pollution et peuplements benthiques sur substrat meuble dans la région de Marseille. Deuxième partie. L'ensemble portuaire marseillais. Revue Internationale d'Océanographie Médicate, 8, 5195.Google Scholar
Berthois, L., 1962. Etude du comportement hydraulique du mica. Sedimentology, 1, 40–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourcier, M., 1969. Ecoulement des ‘boues rouges’ dans le Canyon de la Cassidaigne (Décembre 1968). Téthys, 1, 779–82.Google Scholar
Buchanan, J. B., 1963. The bottom fauna communities and their sediment relationships off the coast of Northumberland. Oikos, 14, 154–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buchanan, J. B., 1971. Measurement of the physical and chemical environment. Sediments. In Methods for the Study of Marine Benthos, ed. Holme, N. A. and McIntyre, A. D., 3052. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications.Google Scholar
Chapman, G., 1949. The thixotrophy and dilatancy of a marine soil. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 28, 123–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chapman, G. & Newell, G. E., 1947. The role of the body fluid in relation to movement in soft-bodied invertebrates. I. The burrowing of Arenicola. Proceedings of the Royal Society, B, 134, 431–55.Google ScholarPubMed
Cornwall River Authority, 1970. Annual report: for the year ended 31st March 1970, 51 pp.Google Scholar
Coull, B. C., 1972. Species diversity and faunal affinities of meiobenthic Copepoda in the deep sea. Marine Biology, 14, 4851.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cumming, K. B. & Hill, D. M., 1971. Stream faunal recovery after manganese strip mine reclamation. Water Pollution Control Research Series, 18050 DOH 06/71, 36 pp. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.Google Scholar
Day, J. H., Field, J. G. & Montgomery, M. P., 1971. The use of numerical methods to determine the distribution of the benthic fauna across the continental shelf of North Carolina. Journal of Animal Ecology, 40, 93125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doyle, L. J., Cleary, W. J. & Pilkey, O. H., 1968. Mica: its use in determining shelf-depositional regimes. Marine Geology, 6, 381–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dragoli, A. L., 1961. Peculiar feeding habits in the Black Sea polychaete Melinna palmata Grube. Doklady Akademii nauk SSSR, 138, 534–6.Google Scholar
Eggleston, D. & Hickman, R. W., 1972. Mass stranding of molluscs at Te Waewae Bay, South-land, New Zealand (note). New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 6, 379–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eisma, D., 1966. The distribution of benthic marine molluscs off the main Dutch coast. Nether-lands Journal of Sea Research, 3, 107–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Estcourt, I. N., 1968. A note on the fauna of a ripple-marked sandy sediment in western Cook Strait, New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 2, 654–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fager, E. W., 1964. Marine sediments: effects of a tube-building polychaete. Science, New York, 143, 356–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fager, E. W., 1972. Diversity: a sampling study. American Naturalist, 106, 293310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fraser, J. H., 1935. The fauna of the Liverpool Bay shrimping grounds and the Morecambe Bay prawning grounds as revealed by the use of a beam-trawl. Proceedings and Transactions of the Liverpool Biological Society, 48, 6578.Google Scholar
Gage, J., 1972. Community structure of the benthos in Scottish sea-lochs. I. Introduction and species diversity. Marine Biology, 14, 281–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibbs, P. E., 1969. A quantitative study of the polychaete fauna of certain fine deposits in Plymouth Sound. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 49, 311–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibbs, P. E. & Probert, K., 1973. Notes on Gyptis capensis and Sosane sulcata (Annelida: Polychaeta) in the benthos off the south coast of Cornwall. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 53, 397401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilboy, G., 1928. The compressibility of sand-mica mixtures. Proceedings of the American Society of Civil Engineers, 54, 555–68.Google Scholar
Green, D. W., 1972. An investigation of the disposal of micaceous residue through a sea outfall. Proceedings of the Institute of Civil Engineers, 53, 127–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Griffin, J. J., Windom, H. & Goldberg, E. D., 1968. The distribution of clay minerals in the World Ocean. Deep-Sea Research, 15, 433–59.Google Scholar
Grim, R. E., 1953. Clay mineralogy. 384 pp. London: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Holme, N. A., 1961. The bottom fauna of the English Channel. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 41, 397461.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holme, N. A., 1964. Methods of sampling the benthos. Advances in Marine Biology, 2, 171260.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holme, N. A., 1972. Disposal of china clay waste in the English Channel. Mémoires du Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières, 79, 269–70.Google Scholar
Holme, N. A. & Probert, P. K., 1975. Disposal of solid waste in the marine environment with particular reference to the china clay industry. N.A.T.O. Advanced Study Institute, July 1973 (in the Press).Google Scholar
Howell, B. R. & Shelton, R. G. J., 1970. The effect of china clay on the bottom fauna of St Austell and Mevagissey Bays. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 50, 593607.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hudson, K., 1969. The history of English china clays: Fifty years of pioneering and growth, 189 pp. Newton Abbott: David and Charles.Google Scholar
Inderbitzen, A. L., 1970. Empirical relationships between mass physical properties for Recent marine sediments off southern California. Marine Geology, 9, 311–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jandin, P., 1961. Teneurs en micas de quelques sables. Cahiers géologiques, 62–63, 621–8.Google Scholar
Jones, N. S., 1950. Marine bottom communities. Biological Reviews, 25, 283313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keller, W. D., 1970. Environmental aspects of clay minerals. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology, 40, 788814.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCarthy, D. F. & Leonard, R. J., 1963. Compaction and compression characteristics of micaceous fine sands and silts. Highway Research Record, 22, 2337.Google Scholar
Marine Biological Association, 1957. Plymouth Marine Fauna (3rd ed.), 457 pp. Plymouth.Google Scholar
Mehmel, M., 1939. Application Of X-Ray Methods To The Investigation Of Recent Sediments. In: Recent Marine Sediments, ed. Trask, P. D., 616–30. New York: Dover Publications.Google Scholar
Moore, D. G., 1961. Submarine slumps. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology, 31, 343–57.Google Scholar
Moore, D. G., 1962. Bearing strength and other physical properties of some shallow and deep-sea sediments from the North Pacific. Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, 73, 1163–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nair, N. B. & Ansell, A. D., 1968. Characteristics of penetration of the substratum by some marine bivalve molluscs. Proceedings of the Malacological Society of London, 38, 179–97.Google Scholar
Orton, J. H., 1929. Severe environmental mortality among Abra (=Syndosmyd) alba, Donax vittatus and other organisms off the Lancashire coast. Nature, London, 124, 911.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petersen, C. G. J., 1918. The sea bottom and its production of fish-food. Report of the Danish Biological Station to the Board of Agriculture, 25, 62 pp.Google Scholar
Portmann, J. E., 1970. The effect of china clay on the sediments of St Austell and Mevagissey Bays. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 50, 577–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quayle, D. B., 1949. Movements in Venerupis (Paphia) pullastra (Montagu). Proceedings of the Malacological Society of London, 28, 31–7.Google Scholar
Rateev, M. A., Gorbunova, Z. N., Lisitzyn, A. P. & Nosov, G. L., 1969. The distribution of clay minerals in the oceans. Sedimentology, 13, 2143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rees, E. I. S., Walker, A. J. M. & Ward, A. R., 1972. Benthic fauna in relation to sludge disposal. Out of sight - Out of mind, 2, 297343. Department of the Environment.Google Scholar
Reish, D. J., 1959. An ecological study of pollution in Los Angeles-Long Beach Harbors, California. Occasional Papers of the Allan Hancock Foundation, 22, 119 pp.Google Scholar
Richards, A. F., 1961. Investigations of deep-sea sediment cores. I. Shear strength, bearing capacity and consolidation. Technical Report, United States Navy Hydrographic Office, 63, 70 pp.Google Scholar
Sanders, H. L., 1956. Oceanography of Long Island Sound, 1952–1954. X. The biology of marine bottom communities. Bulletin of the Bingham Oceanographic Collection, Yale University, 15, 345414.Google Scholar
Sanders, H. L., 1968. Marine benthic diversity: a comparative study. American Naturalist, 102, 243–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanders, H. L., 1969. Benthic marine diversity and the stability-time hypothesis. Diversity and Stability in Ecological Systems, Brookhaven Symposia in Biology, 22, 7181.Google ScholarPubMed
Shelton, R. G. J. & Rolfe, M. S., 1971. The effects of disposing china clay wastes off the Cornish coast. International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, CM. Papers and Reports, C.M. 1971/E:14, 6 pp.Google Scholar
Siddiquie, H. N. & Mallik, T. K., 1972. An analysis of the mineral distribution patterns in the Recent shelf sediments off Mangalore, India. Marine Geology, 12, 359–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simberloff, D., 1972. Properties of the rarefaction diversity measurement. American Naturalist, 106, 414–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tebble, N., 1966. British bivalve seashells. 212 pp. London: The British Museum (Natural History).Google Scholar
Trask, P. D. & Rolston, J. W., 1950. Relation of strength of sediments to water content and grain size. Science, New York, 111, 666–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Truscott, J. A., 1969. Synopsis of a report by Binnie & Partners, consulting engineers to the China Clay Association. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 17, 26.Google Scholar
Wade, B. A., 1972. A description of a highly diverse soft-bottom community in Kingston Harbour, Jamaica. Marine Biology, 13, 5769.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warwick, R. M. & Buchanan, J. B., 1970. The meiofauna off the coast of Northumberland. I. The structure of the nematode population. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 50, 129–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilhm, J. L., 1967. Comparison of some diversity indices applied to populations of benthic macroinvertebrates in a stream receiving organic wastes. Journal of the Water Pollution Control Federation, 39, 1673–83.Google Scholar
Woodwell, G. M., 1970. Effects of pollution of the structure and physiology of ecosystems. Science, New York, 168, 429–33.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yonge, C. M., 1946. On the habits of Turritella communis Risso. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 26, 377–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Young, D. K. & Rhoads, D. C., 1971. Animal-sediment relations in Cape Cod Bay, Massachusetts. I. A transect study. Marine Biology, 11, 242–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar