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Abstract

The present study aimed at determining the impact of cooling water discharge from a Nuclear Power Plant in Kenting, Taiwan on the recruitment patterns of marine invertebrates. Field experiments were conducted over a six-year period in the vicinity of the power plant, with six control sites, five at influent areas, one at reference site, and three experimental sites at effluent areas. In general, among the monitoring sites, polychaetes and bryozoans were the most abundant organisms, and their recruitment on settlement plates was always higher in influent than in effluent areas. Partially as a result of a 5-week accidental shutdown of the power plant in the early spring of 2001, a higher recruitment of both polychaetes and bryozoans, comparable to that in influent areas, was observed in the spring and summer of 2001, but only at site Efflu, one of the three effluent areas. Albeit right nearby, site Efflu2 intriguingly showed no such increase in recruitment, MPT as well. Based on the monitoring results, it is strongly suggested that the different patterns of recruitment in the effluent areas can not just be attributed to thermal effects; on the contrary, other physicochemical disturbances seem to have been at play.

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