Open AccessHow are coastal benthos fed?
Author(s) -
Waples James T.,
Bootsma Harvey A.,
Klump J. Val
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
limnology and oceanography letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2378-2242
DOI - 10.1002/lol2.10033
Subject(s) - benthic zone , benthos , oceanography , advection , environmental science , flux (metallurgy) , settling , population , biogeochemical cycle , hydrology (agriculture) , atmospheric sciences , geology , chemistry , environmental chemistry , physics , environmental engineering , demography , organic chemistry , geotechnical engineering , sociology , thermodynamics
Water movement can influence the distribution of benthos, in part, by increasing food delivery; however, the impact of advective transport and turbulent diffusion on organic matter flux to nearshore benthic communities is not well quantified. In this study, we measured the vertical particulate organic carbon (POC) and particulate phosphorus (PP) flux in nearshore Lake Michigan using two naturally occurring daughter/parent radionuclide pairs ( 234 Th/ 238 U and 90 Y/ 90 Sr) and compared these fluxes to coincident benthic chamber estimates of respiration and total phosphorus efflux by quagga mussels on the lakebed. We found that advective onshore transport and vertical convective mixing increased POC and PP flux to the nearshore benthos by a factor of ∼ 15 and ∼ 30 over offshore trap‐derived estimates of flux. From these results, we hypothesize that high benthos population densities are related to an edge effect created when the dominant mechanism of particle delivery transitions from gravitational settling to convection.