BG Biogeosciences BG Biogeosciences 1726-4189 Copernicus Publications Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/bg-11-2225-2014 Thin terrestrial sediment deposits on intertidal sandflats: effects on pore-water solutes and juvenile bivalve burial behaviour Hohaia A. 1 Vopel K. 1 Pilditch C. A. 2 Auckland University of Technology, Institute for Applied Ecology New Zealand, Private Bag 92006, Auckland 1142, New Zealand University of Waikato, Department of Biological Sciences, Private Bag 3105, Hamilton 3240, New Zealand 22 04 2014 11 8 2225 2235 Copyright: © 2014 A. Hohaia et al. 2014 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This article is available from https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/11/2225/2014/bg-11-2225-2014.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/11/2225/2014/bg-11-2225-2014.pdf

Nearshore zones experience increased sedimentation due to coastal development and enhanced loads of fine terrestrial sediment (hereafter, TS) in river waters. Deposition of TS can alter seabed biogeochemical processes but the effects on benthic ecosystem functioning are unknown. The results of a past experiment with defaunated, intertidal sediment suggest that a decrease in the oxygenation of this sediment by a thin (mm) TS deposit causes substrate rejection (refusal to bury) by post-settlement juvenile recruits of the tellinid bivalve <i>Macomona liliana</i>. We further examined this behaviour, asking if such deposits negatively affect burial when applied to intertidal sediment that is oxygenated by bioturbation (C) or depleted of dead and living organic matter (D). We observed recruits on the surface of four treatments: C, D, and the same sediments to which we added a 1.7–1.9 mm layer of TS (CTS, DTS). The TS deposit decreased the oxygenation and the pH of the underlying intertidal sediment (CTS) confirming previous results, but significantly increased but not decreased the probability of burial, irrespectively of treatment. Juveniles more likely buried into C than into D. The mechanism that caused previously observed substrate rejection by post-settlement juvenile <i>M. liliana</i> remains unclear but our results suggest that contact of the recruits with the TS deposit does not cause substrate rejection. We now hypothesise that conditioning of sediment by bioturbation can mediate negative effects of TS deposits on the recruits' burial behaviour.

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