Effect of temperature on biogeochemistry of marine organic-enriched systems: implications in a global warming scenario.

Coastal biogeochemical cycles are expected to be affected by global warming. By means of a mesocosm experiment, the effect of increased water temperature on the biogeochemical cycles of coastal sediments affected by organic-matter enrichment was tested, focusing on the carbon, sulfur, and iron cycles. Nereis diversicolor was used as a model species to simulate macrofaunal bioirrigation activity in natural sediments. Although bioirrigation rates of N. diversicolor were not temperature dependent, temperature did have a major effect on the sediment metabolism. Under organic-enrichment conditions, the increase in sediment metabolism was greater than expected and occurred through the enhancement of anaerobic metabolic pathway rates, mainly sulfate reduction. There was a twofold increase in sediment metabolism and the accumulation of reduced sulfur. The increase in the benthic metabolism was maintained by the supply of electron acceptors through bioirrigation and as a result of the availability of iron in the sediment. As long as the sediment buffering capacity toward sulfides is not surpassed, an increase in temperature might promote the recovery of organic-enriched sediments by decreasing the time for mineralization of excess organic matter.

Mixed-habitat assimilation of organic waste in coastal environments - It's all about synergy!

Fish farms are increasingly situated in strong current sites above or near to mixed-bottom habitats that include organisms not normally considered in the context of organic enrichment. This study takes a holistic view of the benthic enrichment process by combining different survey techniques on complimentary spatial scales: conventional macrofaunal cores, larger-scale visual quantification of epibiota and environmental-DNA metabarcoding of microbial communities. A large tube forming polychaete (Arenicola marina), normally found intertidally and living too deep for conventional sampling, was observed occupying an opportunistic niche in areas of high deposition and in very close association with Capitellid worm complexes. The surface-dwelling brittlestar, Ophiocomina nigra, was abundant at distances of 250-1000 m from Farm-B, suggesting a positive response to enrichment, but was displaced where sedimentation exceed 5 g m2 d-1. A corresponding gradient was evident within the sediment microbial communities, supporting established theories about ecosystem engineering and multi-species synergies for organic waste assimilation. Many of the bacteria present in the near-farm sediments were linked to the farmed fish and fish health issues suggesting one or two-way inoculation pressures. These functionally different benthic organisms are intrinsically linked and the resulting synergy has the potential to assimilate significant quantities of anthropogenically produced organic waste contributing to environmental sustainability.

Responses of an Agricultural Soil Microbiome to Flooding with Seawater after Managed Coastal Realignment.

Coastal areas have become more prone to flooding with seawater due to climate-change-induced sea-level rise and intensified storm surges. One way to cope with this issue is by "managed coastal realignment", where low-lying coastal areas are no longer protected and instead flooded with seawater. How flooding with seawater impacts soil microbiomes and the biogeochemical cycling of elements is poorly understood. To address this, we conducted a microcosm experiment using soil cores collected at the nature restoration project site Gyldensteen Strand (Denmark), which were flooded with seawater and monitored over six months. Throughout the experiment, biogeochemical analyses, microbial community fingerprinting and the quantification of marker genes documented clear shifts in microbiome composition and activity. The flooding with seawater initially resulted in accelerated heterotrophic activity that entailed high ammonium production and net removal of nitrogen from the system, also demonstrated by a concurrent increase in the abundances of marker genes for ammonium oxidation and denitrification. Due to the depletion of labile soil organic matter, microbial activity decreased after approximately four months. The event of flooding caused the largest shifts in microbiome composition with the availability of labile organic matter subsequently being the most important driver for the succession in microbiome composition in soils flooded with seawater.

Benthic macrofauna bioturbation and early colonization in newly flooded coastal habitats.

How will coastal soils in areas newly flooded with seawater function as habitat for benthic marine organisms? This research question is highly relevant as global sea level rise and coastal realignment will cause flooding of soils and form new marine habitats. In this study, we tested experimentally the capacity of common marine polychaetes, Marenzelleria viridis, Nereis (Hediste) diversicolor and Scoloplos armiger to colonize and modify the biogeochemistry of the newly established Gyldensteen Coastal Lagoon, Denmark. All tested polychaetes survived relatively well (28-89%) and stimulated carbon dioxide release (TCO2) by 97-105% when transferred to newly flooded soils, suggesting that soil characteristics are modified rapidly by colonizing fauna. A field survey showed that the pioneering benthic community inside the lagoon was structurally different from the marine area outside the lagoon, and M. viridis and S. armiger were not among the early colonizers. These were instead N. diversicolor and Polydora cornuta with an abundance of 1603 and 540 ind m-2, respectively. Considering the species-specific effects of N. diversicolor on TCO2 release and its average abundance in the lagoon, we estimate that organic carbon degradation was increased by 219% in the first year of flooding. We therefore conclude that early colonizing polychaetes modify the soils and may play an important role in the ecological and successional developments, e.g. C cycling and biodiversity, in newly flooded coastal ecosystems. Newly flooded soils have thus a strong potential to develop into well-functioning marine ecosystems.

Impact of deep-water fish farms on benthic macrofauna communities under different hydrodynamic conditions.

In this study the environmental impacts of two fish farms located over deep water (180-190 m) were compared. MC-Farm was located at a site with slightly higher water currents (mean current speed 3-5 cms(-1)) than LC-farm (<2 cms(-1)). Macrofauna composition, bioirrigation and benthic fluxes (CO2 and NH4(+)) were quantified at different stages of the production cycle, revealing very different impact of the two farms. Macrofauna abundance and bioirrigation were stimulated compared to a non-impacted reference site at MC-farm, while macrofauna diversity was only moderately reduced. In contrast, macrofauna communities and related parameters were severely impoverished at LC-Farm. This study suggests that deep-water fish farms should not be sited in low current areas (<2 cms(-1)), since this will hamper waste dispersal and aggravate environmental impacts. On the other hand, fish farming at slightly more dynamic sites can lead to stimulated benthic macrofauna communities and only moderate environmental impacts.

Carbon mineralization pathways and bioturbation in coastal Brazilian sediments.

Carbon mineralization processes and their dependence on environmental conditions (e.g. through macrobenthic bioturbation) have been widely studied in temperate coastal sediments, but almost nothing is known about these processes in subtropical coastal sediments. This study investigated pathways of organic carbon mineralization and associated effects of macrobenthic bioturbation in winter and summer (September 2012 and February 2014) at the SE Brazilian coast. Iron reduction (FeR) was responsible for 73-81% of total microbial carbon mineralization in September 2012 and 32-61% in February 2014. Similar high rates of FeR have only been documented a few times in coastal sediments and can be sustained by the presence of large bioturbators. Denitrification accounted for 5-27% of total microbial carbon mineralization while no SO4(2-) reduction was detected in any season. Redox profiles suggested that conditions were less reduced in February 2014 than in September 2012, probably associated with low reactivity of the organic matter, higher rates of aerobic respiration and bioirrigation by the higher density of small-macrofauna. Bioturbation by small macrofauna may maintain the sediment oxidized in summer, while large-sized species stimulate the reoxidation of reduced compounds throughout the year. Therefore, bioturbation seems to have an important role modulating the pathways of carbon mineralization in the area.

Biogeochemical malfunctioning in sediments beneath a deep-water fish farm.

We investigated the environmental impact of a deep water fish farm (190 m). Despite deep water and low water currents, sediments underneath the farm were heavily enriched with organic matter, resulting in stimulated biogeochemical cycling. During the first 7 months of the production cycle benthic fluxes were stimulated >29 times for CO(2) and O(2) and >2000 times for NH(4)(+), when compared to the reference site. During the final 11 months, however, benthic fluxes decreased despite increasing sedimentation. Investigations of microbial mineralization revealed that the sediment metabolic capacity was exceeded, which resulted in inhibited microbial mineralization due to negative feed-backs from accumulation of various solutes in pore water. Conclusions are that (1) deep water sediments at 8 °C can metabolize fish farm waste corresponding to 407 and 29 mmol m(-2) d(-1) POC and TN, respectively, and (2) siting fish farms at deep water sites is not a universal solution for reducing benthic impacts.