Effects of Abiotic Stressors on Infaunal Burrowing and Associated Sediment Characteristics
Infauna play key roles in nutrient cycling and bioturbation by facilitating exchange across the sediment-water interface, but the effects of environmental stressors on the behavior of infauna are poorly studied compared to epifauna. Here we used laboratory experiments to examine the effects of temperature (15, 21, and 32°C), salinity (16, 22, 28, and 34), and food availability (low, moderate, high) on the burrowing activity of the opportunistic deposit-feeding polychaete Capitella sp. 1. We also used pH and O2 fluorosensors to investigate the effects of burrowing on marine sediment chemistry. Worms buried significantly deeper at 21 than at 15°C, and they died at 32°C. Salinity only marginally affected the area of burrowing activity, with greater area at 35 than at 22. Burrows in highly enriched treatments were significantly more shallow than those in moderate and low food treatments. The fluorosensors showed that the exchange of solutes between the sediment and overlying water was associated with burrowing activity. These results show that changes in environmental conditions affect infaunal burrowing activity, which in turn affects sediment characteristics. We discuss the need to consider infaunal responses to abiotic stress in order to understand community and ecosystem responses to environmental changes associated with climate change, pollution, and eutrophication.
Simple
Identification info
- Date (Publication)
- 2010-01-01T00:00:00
- Citation identifier
- Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/71017
- Cited responsible party
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Author Przeslawski, R.
1 Author Zhu, Q.
2 Author Aller, R.A.
3
- Point of contact
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Custodian EGD
Owner Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Custodian Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
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- Geoscientific information
Extent
))
- Maintenance and update frequency
- Unknown
- Keywords
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External Publication
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Scientific Journal Paper
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- Theme
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sedimentology
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- Theme
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marine
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- Theme
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CERF
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- Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)
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Earth Sciences
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- Keywords
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Published_External
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Resource constraints
- Title
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
- Alternate title
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CC-BY
- Edition
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4.0
- Access constraints
- License
- Use constraints
- License
Resource constraints
- Title
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Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
Distribution Information
- Distributor contact
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Distributor Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice
- OnLine resource
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Related Product
View the online abstract in Marine Ecology Progress Series, Vol. 392, pp. 33-42
Resource lineage
- Statement
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Unknown
- Hierarchy level
- Non geographic dataset
- Other
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External Publication
- Description
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Source data not available.
Metadata constraints
- Title
-
Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
Metadata
- Metadata identifier
-
urn:uuid/a05f7892-f970-7506-e044-00144fdd4fa6
- Title
-
GeoNetwork UUID
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
- Contact
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Point of contact Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice
Type of resource
- Resource scope
- Non geographic dataset
- Name
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nonGeographicDataset
Alternative metadata reference
- Title
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Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with
uuid
- Citation identifier
- eCatId/71017
- Date info (Revision)
- 2018-04-22T08:18:48
- Date info (Creation)
- 2010-09-17T00:00:00
Metadata standard
- Title
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AU/NZS ISO 19115-1:2014
Metadata standard
- Title
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ISO 19115-1:2014
Metadata standard
- Title
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ISO 19115-3
- Title
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Geoscience Australia Community Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-1:2014
- Edition
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Version 2.0, September 2018
- Citation identifier
- https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/122551