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We demonstrate the fast transfer of suspended particles from the boundary layer into the upper strata (z < 4 cm) of permeable sediments with topography-related interfacial water flows. The transport is driven by pressure gradients (A P I 3 Pa) generated when bottom flows (u I 10 cm s-l) are deflected by small surface structures (z < 3 cm) of hydrodynamical or biological origin. Acrylic pigment grains of 1 -and 1 O-pm diameter traced the intrusion of particulate matter into sandy sediment (k > 2 x 10-l l m2) incubated in a laboratory flume. Increased pressure up-and downstream of small mounds (z = 2.5 cm) drove water 5.5 cm into the core, carrying suspended particles (1 pm) to 2.2-cm sediment depth within 10 h. Simultaneously, decreased pressure at the downstream slope of the protrusions drew pore fluid from deeper layers (z 5 10 cm) to the surface. In the sediment, friction reduced the velocity of the particulate tracers, resulting in size fractionation and layers of increased particle concentration. Ripple topography (0.8-2.8 cm high) enhanced interfacial particle (1 pm) flux by a factor 2 .3 when compared to a level control core. The pathways of the particle and solute tracers below a sediment ripple are explained with a source-sink model that describes the pore flow velocity field. Our results suggest that bedform-induced interfacial flows are important for the uptake of particulate organic matter into permeable shelf sediments.

Relationships among fluid flow, sulfide concentration, sulfur bacteria and macrofaunal assemblages were examined at methane seeps on the northern California margin, near the mouth of the Eel River (512 to 525 m). Over a 6 mo period, sediments covered with microbial mats exhibited significant but variable outflow of altered fluids, with no flow reversals. This fluid flow was associated with high porewater sulfide concentrations (up to 20 mM) and almost no oxygen penetration of sediments (< 0.1 mm). Vesicomya pacifica (clam) bed and non-seep sediments exhibited little net fluid outflow and similar oxygen penetration (3 and 4 mm, respectively); however, sulfide concentrations were higher in subsurface clam-bed sediments (up to 2 mM) than in non-seep sediments (< 200 µM). Macrofaunal densities did not differ among the 3 habitats (13 800 to 16 800 ind. m -2 ; > 300 µm), but biomass and diversity (no. species per core, E(S 100 ), H ') were lower and composition varied in the sulfidic microbial mat sediments relative to clam-bed and non-seep sediments. The community in microbial mat-covered sediments consisted largely (82%) of 6 species in the polychaete family Dorvilleidae, whereas the clam-bed and non-seep microhabitats supported a mixture of annelids, peracarid crustaceans, nemerteans, and mollusks. Vertical microprofiling of sulfide in animal cores indicated that most taxa avoid H 2 S concentrations >1 mM. However, sulfide-oxidizing filamentous bacteria, dorvilleid polychaetes and bivalves (mainly V. pacifica) exhibited highest densities at sulfide concentrations of 1 to 5 mM sulfide. Horizontal and vertical patterns of sulfide availability have a strong influence on the fine-scale distribution, structure and composition of macrofaunal assemblages inhabiting methane seeps and must be accounted for when characterizing the microbiology and ecology of seep habitats.

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