Journal article
Influence of small-scale patchiness on resilience of nutrient cycling to extended hypoxia in estuarine sediments
JL Banks, D Jeff Ross, MJ Keough, CK MacLeod, BD Eyre
Marine Ecology Progress Series | INTER-RESEARCH | Published : 2012
DOI: 10.3354/meps09686
Abstract
Although much work has been done to predict the effects of hypoxia (dissolved oxygen < 2 mg l-1) at regional scales, individual estuaries consist of a patchwork of micro-environments that can have different responses. We followed the effects of extended dissolved oxygen (DO) depletion on benthic fluxes of CO2, O2, NO3-, NH4+, N2, PO43 - and Fe from estuarine sediments from 3 shallow sites with different macrofauna communities and levels of organic enrichment. DO depletion was achieved by a prolonged (40 d) dark incubation of sealed sediment cores. There were no discernible differences in NO3- and N2 fluxes between sites, but the effects of hypoxia on sediment metabolism, and on bioavailable ..
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Awarded by ARC Linkage grant
Awarded by ARC Discovery Grant
Funding Acknowledgements
This work was made possible owing to funding support from an ARC Linkage grant (LP0770222) to D.J.R., B.D.E. and M.J.K., and an ARC Discovery Grant (DP0878568) awarded to B.D.E. Norske-Skog Boyer and the Derwent Estuary Program provided financial and in-kind assistance. We thank A. Pender of Tasmanian Aquaculture and Fisheries Institute (TAFI) for excellent field and laboratory assistance and G. Napthali of Analytical Services Tasmania (AST) for nutrient sample processing.