Effect of crab bioturbation on organic matter processing in South West Atlantic intertidal sediments

FANJUL, EUGENIA; ESCAPA, MAURICIO; MONTEMAYOR, DIANA I; ADDINO, MARIANA; ALVAREZ, M FERNANDA; GRELA, MARIA A; IRIBARNE, OSCAR

JOURNAL OF SEA RESEARCH

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2015 vol. 95 p. 206 - 216

1385-1101

Organic matter (OM) remineralization plays a key role controlling the biogeochemistry of marine sediments. Through their burrowing activities, bioturbating macrofauna not only induces physical, chemical and biological modifications, which can affect microbial communities responsible for organic matter remineralization, but it could also directly affect the distribution and bioavailability of sedimentary organic matter. We conducted in situ crab and burrow density manipulation experiments in intertidal soft-bottoms, to examine if bioturbation affects benthic metabolism, and the amount, distribution, and bioavailability of sedimentary OM. Crab-bioturbation enhances overall benthic metabolism and benthic flux of dissolved OM toward the water column at both mudflat and saltmarsh zones. Moreover, our results reveal that bioturbation also changes the quality, bioavailability and distribution of sedimentary OM in mudflats and saltmarshes. Overall, bioturbation enhances the proportion of labile organic carbon of bioturbated sediments and homogenizes the sediment column in terms of their proportion of labile organic carbon. However, crabs also generate biogenic structures (e.g., mounds) that could promote spatial heterogeneity of high nutritional-value OM. Bioturbation-induced changes on benthic metabolism and on OM availability would result in a reduction of the storage capacity of carbon in our intertidal systems. Previous works indicate that crab- burrows trap detritus and OM-rich sediment. Our results suggest that they are efficiently remineralized at bioturbated sediment, and finally they are quickly exported to the water column as CO2 and DOC. Thus, crabs are modifying the OM processing at intertidal soft bottoms, and the ways in which carbon is exported to coastal waters.