Abstract
Abstract. Bioirrigation, the exchange of solutes between overlying water and sediment
by benthic organisms, plays an important role in sediment biogeochemistry.
Bioirrigation either is quantified based on tracer data or a community
(bio)irrigation potential (IPc) can be derived based on biological traits.
Both these techniques were applied in a seasonal study of bioirrigation in
subtidal and intertidal habitats in a temperate estuary. The combination of
a tracer time series with a high temporal resolution and a mechanistic model
allowed for us to simultaneously estimate the pumping rate and the sediment
attenuation, a parameter that determines irrigation depth. We show that,
although the total pumping rate is similar in both intertidal and subtidal
areas, there is deeper bioirrigation in intertidal areas. This is explained
by higher densities of bioirrigators such as Corophium sp.,
Heteromastus filiformis and Arenicola marina in the intertidal, as
opposed to the subtidal, areas. The IPc correlated more strongly with the
attenuation coefficient than the pumping rate, which highlights that the IPc
index reflects more the bioirrigation depth than the rate.
Subject
Earth-Surface Processes,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Cited by
8 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献