Abstract

The southern Chilean Patagonia is being incorporated into the productive activity through their water bodies applied in aquaculture. This makes it necessary to establish guidelines for sediment quality. The aim of this study was to analyze the environmental quality of sediments collected during an oceanographic cruise from Estrecho de Magallanes (52 degrees 41.1'S) to Cabo de Hornos (55 degrees 0.9'S), through testing of survival, fertilization and growth. The testing organisms were Tisbe longicornis a benthic arthropoda, Arbacia spatuligera an echinoderm and 3 microalgae: Dunaliella tertiolecta, D. salina and Isochrysis galbana. The principal component analysis (PCA) and dendrogram allowed verify in the first place the sensitivity of the assays applied. Furthermore, PCA allowed observing clusters of stations based on the growth of the 3 microalgae, showing that the first 2 components accounted for almost 80% of the total variance. The stations that behaved differently from the control groups were two in the southern sector and one in the northwestern sector, due to their oceanic influence. These result showed that the slight difference between fertilization trials, survival and growth of microalgae on the controls, allow us to suggest that this area is in pristine condition even from the standpoint of sediment quality.