Global patterns of bioturbation intensity and mixed depth of marine soft sediments

Abstract

The importance of bioturbation in mediating biogeochemical processes in the upper centimetres of oceanic sediments provides a compelling reason for wanting to quantify in situ rates of bioturbation. Whilst several approaches can be used for estimating the rate and extent of bioturbation, most often it is characterized by calculating an intensity coefficient (D b ) and/or a mixed layer depth (L). Using measures of D b (n = 447) and L (n = 784) collated largely from peer-reviewed literature, we have assembled a global database and examined patterns of both L and D b . At the broadest level, this database reveals that there are considerable gaps in our knowledge of bioturbation for all major oceans other than the North Atlantic, and almost universally for the deep ocean. Similarly, there is an appreciable bias towards observations in the Northern Hemisphere, particularly along the coastal regions of North America and Europe. For the assembled dataset, we find large discrepancies in estimations of L and D b that reflect differences in boundary conditions and reaction properties of the methods used. Tracers with longer half-lives tend to give lower D b estimates and deeper mixing depths than tracers with shorter half-lives. Estimates of L based on sediment profile imaging are significantly lower than estimates based on tracer methods. Estimations of L, but not D b , differ between biogeographical realms at the global level and, at least for the Temperate Northern Atlantic realm, also at the regional level. There are significant effects of season irrespective of location, with higher activities (D b ) observed during summer and deeper mixing depths (L) observed during autumn. Our evaluation demonstrates that we have reasonable estimates of bioturbation for only a limited set of conditions and regions of the world. For these data, and based on a conservative global mean (± SD) L of 5.75 ± 5.67 cm (n = 791), we calculate the global volume of bioturbated sediment to be > 20 700 km 3 . Whilst it is clear that the role of benthic invertebrates in mediating global ecosystem processes is substantial, the level of uncertainty at the regional level is unacceptably high for much of the globe.

In situ soft sediment nutrient enrichment: A unified approach to eutrophication field experiments

“…Our method enriched the sediment profile at least from 0 to 7 cm depth, and is likely to elevate NH 4 + availability at the sediment water interface. This zone includes the rhizosphere of seagrasses, and the layer of most macrofaunal activity in marine soft sediment habitats (Gilbert et al, 1998;Teal et al, 2008).…”

Biodiversity of benthic microbial communities in bioturbated coastal sediments is controlled by geochemical microniches

“…Bioturbation activity and microbial communities Despite the regional and global importance of macrofauna sediment reworking, reasonable estimates of bioturbation exist only for a limited set of conditions and regions of the World (Henderson et al, 1999;Teal et al, 2008). Although it has been known that burrowing organisms affect sediment biogeochemistry, the interactions are often complex and detailed investigations on the effect of geochemical microzonations on microbial diversity are scarce (Kostka et al, 2002;Lucas et al, 2003;Matsui et al, 2004;Papaspyrou et al, 2006).…”

An approach for the identification of exemplar sites for scaling up targeted field observations of benthic biogeochemistry in heterogeneous environments

“…Activity levels are very low (Fig. 14) across the Celtic Sea shelf compared to other UK shelf areas (Dauwe et al 1998;Teal et al 2008), and similar across all sediment types observed. The median ( f-SPI L med , typical shortterm depth of mixing), maximum ( f-SPI L max , maximum extent of mixing over the long-term) and mean ( f-SPI L mean , time dependent indication of mixing) mixed depths of particle redistribution are presented in Table 6.…”