Recruitment responses of benthic infauna to manipulated sediment geochemical properties in natural flows

Engstrom, S.

doi:10.1357/0022240053693716

Cited by 13 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…These high mortality rates measured in the absence of predation will likely be compounded by increased susceptibility to predation in situ when shells have been compromised by dissolution. Furthermore, the results for the field-buffering experiments indicate that buffered sediments increase recruitment of M. arenaria, though it is possible that buffered sediments either decreased mortality or increased settlement due to chemical cues (Engstrom and Marinelli 2005), or some combination of the two. Overall our study highlights the potential importance of sediment saturation state as a post-settlement mortality factor to newly set juvenile M. mercenaria and M. arenaria.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Death by dissolution: Sediment saturation state as a mortality factor for juvenile bivalves

Green

Waldbusser

Reilly

et al. 2009

Limnology & Oceanography

182

153

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We show that death by dissolution is an important size-dependent mortality factor for juvenile bivalves. Utilizing a new experimental design, we were able to replicate saturation states in sediments after values frequently encountered by Mercenaria mercenaria in coastal deposits (V aragonite 5 0.4 and 0.6). When 0.2-mm M. mercenaria were reared in sediments at V aragonite 5 0.4 and 0.6, significant daily losses of living individuals occurred (14.0% and 14.4% d 21 , respectively), relative to supersaturated-control sediments (3.9% d 21 ). For 0.4-mm M. mercenaria, significant mortality occurred under the most undersaturated conditions (V aragonite 5 0.4, mortality 5 9.6% d 21 ), although mortality at V aragonite 5 0.6 was not significant (mortality 5 2.7% d 21 ; controlsaturated mortality 5 0.2% d 21 ). For the largest size-class investigated, 0.6 mm, we show significant mortality for clams under the most undersaturated sediments (V aragonite 5 0.4, 2.8% d 21 ). To test if buffered sediments would increase survivorship of juvenile bivalves during periods of recruitment, we manually manipulated sediment saturation state by adding crushed Mya arenaria shell to a mud flat in West Bath, Maine, U.S.A. Although we increased the average sediment saturation state within retrieved cores from V 5 0.25 6 0.01 to only 0.53 6 0.06, numbers of live M. arenaria in buffered sediment increased almost three-fold in 2 weeks. Buffering muds against the metabolic acids that cause lowered saturation states may represent a potentially important management strategy to decrease dissolution mortality.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Death by dissolution: Sediment saturation state as a mortality factor for juvenile bivalves

Green

Waldbusser

Reilly

et al. 2009

Limnology & Oceanography

182

153

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…To each well, 2 ml of a 15% acrylamide gel was added. Gels were made with potassium persulfate as an initiator rather than ammonium persulfate, to avoid ammonium contamination (Engstrom & Marinelli 2005). After polymerization, the peeper wells were covered with 0.45 μm Magna nylon filter paper and were prehydrated in 30 psu NaCl solution for 5 d prior to deployment in the field on 4 August 2004.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Macrofaunal modification of porewater advection: role of species function, species interaction, and kinetics

Waldbusser¹,

Marinelli²

2006

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Sedimentary habitats are complex associations of biotic, chemical, and physical processes comprising 'ecosystem function'. The relative importance of these processes to biogeochemical cycling in highly reactive, permeable sediments remains poorly understood. We report results from several field experiments in a muddy-sand intertidal flat dominated by 2 functionally different types of bioturbating macrofauna in False Bay, Washington, USA: (1) the arenicolid polychaete Abarenicola pacifica and (2) 2 species of thalassinid shrimp (Upogebia pugettensis and Neotrypaea californiensis). Experimental plots composed primarily of one of the study taxa or mixed communities of both were evaluated for their effects on porewater advection, solute concentrations, and sediment characteristics. Fluorescein-impregnated acrylamide gels were used to infer rates of transport, and acrylamide gel peepers were used to record porewater concentrations of diagenetically important constituents among experimental plots. Laboratory studies evaluated rates of diffusive transport in non-bioturbated sediments for comparative analysis. We found that (1) functionally different macrofauna affect rates of porewater advection in permeable sediments, (2) organism effects are not attributable to changes in average measures of sediment granulometry, (3) species interactions may further complicate the advective environment and the resulting diagenetic processes, and (4) species effects vary according to reaction rate kinetics. We hypothesize that species-related effects on transport are due to inhibition of arenicolid feeding by thalassinid tubes that serve to block sediment fluidization and advective flow. Thus, specific behaviors and interactions among organisms appear to affect transport rates and sediment function in advectively permeable habitats. The results indicate the importance of integrating behavior, kinetics, and transport into future studies of sedimentary biodiversity and ecosystem function.

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“…This high level of reduced nitrogen resulted from the defaunation technique, in which bio-irrigation of the bottom was inhibited. Decreased juvenile macrobenthic recruitment and settling success have been found in anoxic and suboxic sediments (Marinelli & Woodin 2002, Engstrom & Marinelli 2005. Further, successional Stage 1 was determined by the exponential development of a microphytobenthic mat.…”

Section: Stagementioning

confidence: 99%

Macrobenthic recovery from hypoxia in an estuarine tidal mudflat

Colen¹,

Montserrat²,

Vincx³

et al. 2008

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Macrobenthic recolonisation patterns after complete defaunation resulting from experimentally induced hypoxia were investigated in a polyhaline, estuarine mudflat. Based on simultaneous sampling of biotic and environmental variables in replicated 16 m 2 control and defaunated plots, with a high resolution in time during 6 mo, the ecological interactions related to the macrobenthos reassembly were elucidated. Colonisation was predominantly determined by juvenile recruitment, and 3 successional stages were identified, each characterised by different species assemblages and environmental characteristics. During recovery, a shift in functional group dominance from mobile surface deposit feeders to tube-dwelling surface deposit feeders to biodestabilising taxa occurred, while their proportional dominance remained quite stable in the control plots throughout the experiment. Species colonisation patterns of later colonists revealed positive interactions with early colonising opportunistic tube-building polychaetes Pygospio elegans, while later successional species (Heteromastus filiformis, Macoma balthica) adversely affected the stable, favourable conditions created by the tube-building infauna. Transitions between different successional stages were related to recruitment of species, changes in environmental characteristics (oxygenation state of the sediment), direct and indirect ecological interactions (bio [de]stabilisation, exploitation competition for food). In general, our study suggests that macrobenthic reassembly after hypoxia is related to different types of interactions, all acting in a unique manner. Hence, macrobenthic successional dynamics in a tidal mudflat habitat should be considered as a dynamic process, related to resource availability, natural temporal variation, life history traits (e.g. opportunistic behaviour) and bio-engineering capacities of the colonising species.

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Recruitment responses of benthic infauna to manipulated sediment geochemical properties in natural flows

Cited by 13 publications

References 56 publications

Death by dissolution: Sediment saturation state as a mortality factor for juvenile bivalves

Death by dissolution: Sediment saturation state as a mortality factor for juvenile bivalves

Macrofaunal modification of porewater advection: role of species function, species interaction, and kinetics

Macrobenthic recovery from hypoxia in an estuarine tidal mudflat

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