Seagrass Beds and Coastal Biogeochemistry

Marbà, Núria; Holmer, Marianne; Gacia, Esperança; Barrón, Christina

doi:10.1007/1-4020-2983-7_6

Cited by 37 publications

(51 citation statements)

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“…Sulfide is known to be very toxic to seagrasses (Calleja et al, 2007;Koch and Erskine, 2001;Lamers et al, 2013;Marba et al, 2006;Terrados et al, 1999) and Van der Heide et al (2012) showed a negative effect on Zostera noltii biomass production at porewater sulfide levels <200 mol L -1 . We found similar threshold values in our field experiment and also found that patch expansion was entirely blocked by sulfide concentrations >1000 mol L -1 .…”

Section: Sulfide Toxicitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Toxic effects of increased sediment nutrient and organic matter loading on the seagrass Zostera noltii

et al. 2014

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As a result of anthropogenic disturbances and natural stressors, seagrass beds are often patchy and heterogeneous. The effects of high loads of nutrients and organic matter in patch development and expansion in heterogeneous seagrass beds have, however, poorly been studied. We experimentally assessed the in situ effects of sediment quality on seagrass (Zostera noltii) patch dynamics by studying patch (0.35 m diameter) development and expansion for 4 sediment treatments: control, nutrient addition (NPK), organic matter addition (OM) and a combination (NPK+OM).OM addition strongly increased porewater sulfide concentrations whereas NPK increased porewater ammonium, nitrate and phosphate concentrations. As high nitrate concentrations suppressed sulfide production in NPK+OM, this treatment was biogeochemically comparable to NPK. Sulfide and ammonium concentrations differed within treatments, but over a 77 days period, seagrass patch survival and expansion were impaired by all additions compared to the control treatment.Expansion decreased at porewater ammonium concentrations >2000 mol L -1 .Mother patch biomass was not affected by high porewater ammonium concentrations as a result of its detoxification by higher seagrass densities. Sulfide 2 concentrations >1000 mol L -1 were toxic to both patch expansion and mother patch. We conclude that patch survival and expansion are constrained at high loads of nutrients or organic matter as a result of porewater ammonium or sulfide toxicity.

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Section: Sulfide Toxicitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At low sulfide levels, seagrass is usually able to cope with sulfide by oxidizing it in the root zone (Holmer and Bondgaard, 2001;Marba et al, 2006;Pedersen et al, 1998).…”

Section: Sulfide Toxicitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Toxic effects of increased sediment nutrient and organic matter loading on the seagrass Zostera noltii

et al. 2014

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“…Seagrasses influence key ecological functions within coastal ecosystems through their productivity and by trapping sediment, altering hydrodynamics, and modifying biogeochemical processes in the water column and sediment (Duarte and Chiscano, 1999;Marba et al, 2006). Through their effects on ecosystem processes seagrasses provide numerous ecosystem 25 services including sediment stabilization, coastline protection, nutrient cycling, pathogen reduction, support of fisheries, and enhancement of biodiversity (Duffy, 2006;la Torre Castro and Rönnbäck, 2004;Lamb et al, 2017;Orth et al, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seagrass community-level controls over organic carbon storage are constrained by geophysical attributes within meadows of Zanzibar, Tanzania

Belshe¹,

Hoeijmakers²,

Herran³

et al. 2017

Preprint

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Abstract. The aim of this work was to explore the feasibility of using seagrass functional traits to predict differences in sediment carbon storage. At 19 sites within highly diverse seagrass meadows of Zanzibar, Tanzania, species cover was 10 estimated along with three community traits hypothesized to influence sediment carbon storage (amount of above and belowground biomass, seagrass tissue nitrogen content, and shoot density). We identified five distinct seagrass communities that had notable variations in key plant traits but these differences did not translate into differences is sediment organic carbon (OC) storage. Across all communities, sediment OC was very low (ranging from 0.15% to 0.75%) and there were no differences in OC storage among communities, which was considerably lower (33.9±7.7 Mg C ha -1 ) than the global average 15 (194.2±20.2 Mg C ha -1 ) reported for other seagrass ecosystems. In spite of high seagrass diversity and clear zonation among plant communities, sediments in all communities were shallow (ranging from 19 to 78 cm) and composed of medium-coarse grained carbonate sand on top of carbonate rock. We propose that geophysical conditions of the sediment were not conducive to OC stabilization, and outweighed any variation in the quantity or quality of plant litter inputs, ultimately leading to low OC storage within all seagrass communities. This highlights the complexity of OC cycling in seagrass 20 ecosystems and cautions against the use of plant traits as a proxy for OC storage across all seagrass ecosystems.

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“…One widespread species, Zostera marina, or eelgrass, in particular, provides a habitat for ecologically diverse and economically important ecosystems along coasts throughout much of the Northern Hemisphere (16,17). The return of terrestrial seagrass ancestors to oceans is among the most severe habitat shifts accomplished by vascular plants (18) and has prompted detailed study of the physiological adaptations associated with this shift (19,20), including the tolerance of salinity and anoxic sediment conditions.…”

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confidence: 99%

Global-scale structure of the eelgrass microbiome

Fahimipour

Kardish

Eisen

et al. 2016

Preprint

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Plant-associated microorganisms are essential for their hosts' survival and performance. Yet, most plant microbiome studies to date have focused on terrestrial species sampled across relatively small spatial scales. Here, we report the results of a global-scale analysis of microbial communities associated with leaf and root surfaces of the marine eelgrass Zostera marina throughout its range in the Northern Hemisphere. By contrasting host microbiomes with those of surrounding seawater and sediment, we uncovered the structure, composition, and variability of microbial communities associated with eelgrass. We also investigated hypotheses about the assembly of the eelgrass microbiome using a metabolic modeling approach. Our results reveal leaf communities displaying high variability and spatial turnover that mirror their adjacent coastal seawater microbiomes. By contrast, roots showed relatively low compositional turnover and were distinct from surrounding sediment communities, a result driven by the enrichment of predicted sulfur-oxidizing bacterial taxa on root surfaces. Predictions from metabolic modeling of enriched taxa were consistent with a habitat-filtering community assembly mechanism whereby similarity in resource use drives taxonomic cooccurrence patterns on belowground, but not aboveground, host tissues. Our work provides evidence for a core eelgrass root microbiome with putative functional roles and highlights potentially disparate processes influencing microbial community assembly on different plant compartments.IMPORTANCE Plants depend critically on their associated microbiome, yet the structure of microbial communities found on marine plants remains poorly understood in comparison to that for terrestrial species. Seagrasses are the only flowering plants that live entirely in marine environments. The return of terrestrial seagrass ancestors to oceans is among the most extreme habitat shifts documented in plants, making them an ideal testbed for the study of microbial symbioses with plants that experience relatively harsh abiotic conditions. In this study, we report the results of a global sampling effort to extensively characterize the structure of microbial communities associated with the widespread seagrass species Zostera marina, or eelgrass, across its geographic range. Our results reveal major differences in the structure and composition of above-versus belowground microbial communities on eelgrass surfaces, as well as their relationships with the environment and host.

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Seagrass Beds and Coastal Biogeochemistry

Cited by 37 publications

References 0 publications

Toxic effects of increased sediment nutrient and organic matter loading on the seagrass Zostera noltii

Toxic effects of increased sediment nutrient and organic matter loading on the seagrass Zostera noltii

Seagrass community-level controls over organic carbon storage are constrained by geophysical attributes within meadows of Zanzibar, Tanzania

Global-scale structure of the eelgrass microbiome

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