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S20 Biogeochemistry, Macronutrient And S20 Biogeochemistry, macronutrient and carbon cycling in the benthic layer of coastal and shelf-seas Conveners: Gary Fones, Gennardi Lessin, Steve Widdicombe & Martin Solan Tuesday 6th September Oral Presentations 09.45 Benthic oxygen fluxes in variable tidal conditions and sediment composition Megan E. Williams (E) [National Oceanography Centre], Laurent O. Amoudry [National Oceanography Centre], Alejandro J. Souza [National Oceanography Centre], Henry A. Ruhl [National Oceanography Centre] & Daniel O.B. Jones [National Oceanography Centre] Abstract: Benthic sediments in coastal and shelf seas are a major contributor to remineralisation of organic matter and nutrient cycling, and oxygen consumption in benthic sediments can be used as a proxy to quantify this cycling of carbon and nutrients. The aquatic eddy covariance method has recently been developed to quantify benthic oxygen flux between sediments and the overlying water column. The method’s advantage is the ability measure fluxes representative of a large bed footprint with minimal bed and flow disturbance. As part of the UK Shelf Seas Biogeochemistry programme, a frame with velocity and oxygen sensors was deployed across seasons and at four sites across the sand-mud sediment gradient in the Celtic Sea (mud, sandy-mud, muddy-sand, sand). We will focus here on a comparison across the different sediment bed compositions for late-summer deployments, when wave conditions and any resulting contamination of the measurement are small. Data from August 2015 give distinctive oxygen consumption rates for different bed compositions in the Celtic Sea. Measurements at the mud site give oxygen fluxes an order of magnitude larger than at the other three sites, which all have higher percentage sand composition. Tidal conditions and resulting near-bed turbulence also varied between the sites and we explore tidal processes, turbulence, and sediment composition as drivers of variable oxygen fluxes in shelf sediments. 10.00 Benthic Nitrogen Cycling in the Celtic Sea Vassilis Kitidis [Plymouth Marine Laboratory], Joana Nunes [Plymouth Marine Laboratory] & Karen Tait [Plymouth Marine Laboratory] Abstract: Sediments are a vital component of the shelf seas playing a key role in the recycling of organic and inorganic nutrients. Here we present the results of a seasonal study investigating benthic Nitrogen cycling in sediments of the Celtic Sea. Cruises were undertaken in March, May and August 2015. Samples were collected at five stations along a gradient of cohesive (muddy) to advective (sandy) sediments. We performed whole core incubation experiments, measuring nitrification, denitrification and anammox rates as well as the abundance and expression of relevant microbial groups. Our results show that Nitrogen cycling rates were correlated with the expression of key microbial genes and that these processes were regulated primarily by Oxygen. 10.15 Impacts of climate change and physical disturbance on benthic biogeochemical processes Jasmin A. Godbold (E) [University of Southampton], Rachel Hale [University of Southampton] & Martin Solan [University of Southampton] Abstract: Continental shelf sediments disproportionately contribute to the biogeochemical cycling of organic matter at a global scale, but human activity and environmental change within these regions is likely to fundamentally adjust physical, chemical and biological characteristics that are influential in determining the stocks and flows of macronutrients and carbon exchange. Here we report the findings from a series of laboratory experiments that consider the effects of indirect climatic pressures (temperature, ocean acidification) alongside changes in naturally assembled benthic communities associated with altered disturbance regimes (cohesive versus non-cohesive sediments, lightly versus heavily trawled). Intact sediment communities, representing the full variety of biogeochemical conditions typically observed in temperate shelf seas, were collected in the Celtic and Irish Seas, returned to the laboratory and exposed to present (ambient bottom temperature, CO2 380 ppm) and anticipated future climate conditions (ambient bottom temperature +4°C, CO2 1000 ppm) for 6 months. In this presentation, we will investigate how varying disturbance regimes in combination with anticipated climate change may influence benthic community structure, infaunal burrowing and ventilation activities and associated levels of macronutrients. These data will help identify areas where macrofaunal traits and biogeochemical variables are closely coupled, and in what way and where this becomes decoupled. 10.30 Hypoxia and brittlestars: Linking physiology and behaviour to ecosytem function Ruth Calder-Potts (S) [Plymouth Marine Laboratory and Plymouth University], John Spicer [Plymouth University], Helen Findlay [Plymouth Marine Laboratory], Ana Queirós [Plymouth Marine Laboratory], Piero Calosi [Université du Québec] & Stephen Widdicombe [Plymouth Marine Laboratory] Abstract: Hypoxic events are increasing in frequency and duration, particularly in marine habitats susceptible to eutrophication. Such events pose a growing threat to the health and function of marine ecosystems by altering large-scale biological and ecological processes. Linking how hypoxia impacts the physiology and behaviour of benthic invertebrates, to the disruption of ecosystem function and services is of primary importance. Using a mesocosm experiment, we investigated the effects of short-term hypoxia (14 d, 3.59 mg O2 L−1) and organism density (5, 9, 13, 17, and 21 indiv. per aquarium, equating to 500, 900, 1300, 1700, and 2100 indiv. m-2 respectively) on the metabolic rates and aspects of the reproductive biology of a key infaunal species, the brittlestar Amphiura filiformis. Bioturbation activity and nutrient flux was quantified as measures of ecosystem function. Hypoxia resulted in reduced metabolic rates and a delay in metabolic recovery once normoxic (8.09 mg O2 L−1) conditions were re-established. Hypoxia also resulted in a delay in females’ reproductive cell development and smaller oocyte diameters. Interestingly, while brittlestar density had no significant effect on the physiological or histological traits examined, it did have a positive and predicable effect on bioturbation activity in normoxic conditions only. However, the relationship between brittlestar density and bioturbation was disrupted under hypoxia possibly due to behavioural alterations. Nutrient flux results varied, but after 14 days experimentation ammonium efflux within the high density – hypoxic aquaria was significantly greater compared to normoxic aquaria. The change in brittlestar behaviour, reduced O2 concentrations, organism stress and potentially altered microbial diversity, may have reduced nitrification rates affecting the ability of the sedimentary system to remove excess ammonium. The results observed provide an interesting insight into the organism-level changes that occur under hypoxia and documents how the initial responses of Amphiura filiformis may have consequences to community dynamics and productivity. 10.45 Scavenging Processes at Jelly-Falls Kathy M. Dunlop (E) [Heriot-Watt University], Daniel O.B Jones [National Oceanography Centre] & Andrew K. Sweetman [Heriot-Watt University] Abstract: The fall of large jellyfish blooms to the benthic seafloor has increased in frequency in many areas around the world. Recent baited camera studies in coastal Norwegian fjords have been the first to demonstrate that jelly-fall material can be rapidly consumed by deep-sea benthic scavengers and thus distribute carbon back into the bentho-pelagic food web. The factors governing scavenging on jelly-falls are unknown with background food availability being potentially significant. This study has set out to test the hypothesis that scavengers feed on jelly-falls more frequently in environments characterized by limited food availability, thus increasing their role in the cycling of carbon in the benthic environment. Results will be presented from baited camera deployments across a bathymetric gradient in a deep Norwegian fjord to address changes in scavenger diversity, abundance and carbon consumption/ scavenging rates as a function of depth and by inference, food availability. This work makes significant advances in the mechanistic understand of the factors impacting scavenger consumption of jelly-falls and the role of this process in fjord benthic biogeochemical cycling. 11.30 Contemporary and historic carbon burial by coralline algal beds Jinhua Mao (S) [University of Glasgow], Heidi Burdett, [St Andrews University], Rona McGill [SUERC], Jason Newton [SUERC] & Nick Kamenos [University of Glasgow] Abstract: Carbon sequestration by natural systems plays a key role in removing anthropogenically-derived carbon from the atmosphere. In the oceans, such sequestration of carbon into marine sediments by marine ecosystems for long-term storage is termed ‘blue carbon’. The coastal benthic environment plays a large role in carbon storage via seagrass meadows, salt marshes, and coralline algal beds, together with the sediments they bind. While organic carbon production in seagrass meadows, salt marshes and mangroves has been well quantified, few estimates of carbon production and burial are available for other benthic marine carbon repositories. Meta-analysis reveals that coralline algal beds are a potentially large carbon store due to their global ubiquity and high carbon content, however, those estimates likely underestimate
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