Journal
MARINE ECOLOGY PROGRESS SERIES
Volume 482, Issue -, Pages 43-55Publisher
INTER-RESEARCH
DOI: 10.3354/meps10232
Keywords
Hypoxia; Macrofauna; Mesocosm; Denitrification; Dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium; DNRA; Benthic Flux; Baltic Sea
Categories
Funding
- Managing Baltic Nutrients
- BEAM
- BOX project
- Stockholm University Marine Research Centre
- Stockholm University
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Nutrient reduction and the improvement of bottom water oxygen concentrations are thought to be key factors in the recovery of eutrophic aquatic ecosystems. The effects of re oxygenation and bioturbation of natural hypoxic sediments in the Baltic Sea were studied using a mesocosm experiment. Anoxic sediment box cores were collected from 100 m depth in Kanholmsfj rden (Stockholm Archipelago) and maintained in flow-through mesocosms with 3 treatments: (1) hypoxic: supplied with hypoxic water; (2) normoxic: supplied with oxic water; and (3) Marenzelleria: supplied with oxic water and the polychaete Marenzelleria spp. (2000 ind. m(-2)). After a 7 wk long conditioning period, net fluxes of dissolved O-2, CH4, Fe-2(+), Mn-2(+), NH4+, NO2-, NO3-, PO43- and H4SiO4, and rates of nitrate ammonification (DNRA), denitrification and anammox were determined. Phosphate was taken up by the sediment in all treatments, and the uptake was highest in the normoxic treatment with Marenzelleria. Normoxic conditions stimulated the denitrification rate by a factor of 5. Denitrification efficiency was highest under normoxia (50%), inter mediate in bioturbated sediments (16%), and very low in hypoxic sediments (4%). The shift from hypoxic to normoxic conditions resulted in a significantly higher retention of NH4+, H4SiO4 and Mn-2(+) in the sediment, but the bioturbation by Marenzelleria reversed this effect. Results from our study suggest that bioturbation by Marenzelleria stimulates the exchange of solutes between sediment and bottom water through irrigation and enhances bacterial sulfate reduction in the burrow walls. The latter may have a toxic effect on nitrifying bacteria, which, in turn, suppresses denitrification rates.
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