Disturbance of sandflats by thin terrigenous sediment deposits: consequences for primary production and nutrient cycling

Abstract

The contributions of biodiversity to ecosystem functioning are increasingly recognized by ecologists, with biodiversity loss considered a significant threat to the maintenance of life-supporting ecosystem goods and services. Although ecologists have increased the amount of realism in biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF) experiments, effects on functioning are rarely investigated in the field in conjunction with disturbances that affect biodiversity. Here, effects on functioning were investigated in situ following experimental disturbance of a realistic type and magnitude. Experimental deposits of terrigenous sediment (5 mm thickness) were applied at three intertidal sites in Whangapoua Harbour (Coromandel Peninsula, New Zealand), where soil erosion associated with logging is a serious problem. Experimental disturbance by terrigenous sediment impacted macrofaunal abundance and community composition (suspension and deposit feeders), and there were coincident shifts in ecosystem functioning at all three sites. Relative to controls, sediment-treated plots had higher rates of ammonium efflux (despite 50% fewer macrofaunal individuals) and lower rates of gross primary production and photosynthetic efficiency (despite similar sediment chlorophyll a concentrations). Judging from nutrient ratios in sediment pore water, microphyte primary producers living on the sediment surface in control plots were likely nitrogen limited (the normal situation for marine waters), whereas microphytes in sediment-treated plots were likely phosphate limited. Gross primary production and photosynthetic efficiency were significantly and positively correlated with ammonium uptake in control plots (r2 = 0.463 and 0.856, respectively) but not in treated plots (P > 0.05, r2 < 0.3). We suggest that the higher content of charged particles (clay) in the experimental deposits bound up phosphate, limiting its bio-availability, and shifted functional relationships between sandflat macrofauna and sediment primary productivity.