Abstract
Since the mud snail Bullacta exarata was introduced for economic aquaculture in the Huanghe River (Yellow River) Delta in 2001, its quick population growth and expanded distribution make it a key-species in the intertidal zone of this area. This significantly contributed to the economic income of the local people, but its potential ecological impact on the benthic ecosystem remains unknown. A mesocosm study was conducted to test whether its bioturbation activities affect the microphytobenthos (MPBs; i.e., sedimentary microbes and unicellular algae) productivity and the nutrient exchange between the sediment-water interface. Our results show that the mud snail significantly impacted the dissolved oxygen (DO) flux across the sediment-water interface on the condition of normal sediment and light treatment, and significantly increased the ammonium efflux during recovery period in the defaunated sediment and dark treatment. The presence of micro- and meiofauna significantly increased the NH4-N flux in dark treatment. Whereas, in light treatment, these small animals had less effects on the DO and NH4-N flux between sediment-water interface. Our results provide better insight into the effect of the mud snail B. exarata on the ecosystem functioning via benthic fluxes.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 48-55 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Acta Oceanologica Sinica |
Volume | 38 |
Issue number | 8 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Aug 2019 |
Funding
bioturbation mud snail Bullacta exarata oxygen flux nutrient flux benthic metabolism Huanghe River (Yellow River) Delta publisher-imprint-name The Chinese Society of Oceanography, co-published with Springer volume-issue-count 12 issue-article-count 15 issue-toc-levels 0 issue-copyright-holder The Chinese Society of Oceanography and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature issue-copyright-year 2019 article-contains-esm No article-numbering-style Unnumbered article-registration-date-year 2019 article-registration-date-month 8 article-registration-date-day 2 article-toc-levels 0 toc-levels 0 volume-type Regular journal-product ArchiveJournal numbering-style Unnumbered article-grants-type Regular metadata-grant OpenAccess abstract-grant OpenAccess bodypdf-grant Restricted bodyhtml-grant Restricted bibliography-grant Restricted esm-grant OpenAccess online-first false pdf-file-reference BodyRef/PDF/13131_2019_Article_1430.pdf target-type OnlinePDF issue-online-date-year 2019 issue-online-date-month 8 issue-online-date-day 3 issue-type Regular article-type OriginalPaper journal-subject-primary Earth Sciences journal-subject-secondary Oceanography journal-subject-secondary Climatology journal-subject-secondary Ecology journal-subject-secondary Engineering Fluid Dynamics journal-subject-secondary Marine & Freshwater Sciences journal-subject-secondary Environmental Chemistry journal-subject-collection Earth and Environmental Science open-access false Foundation item: The Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences under contract Nos XDA23050304 and XDA23050202; the Key Research Project of Frontier Science of Chinese Academy of Sciences under contract No. QYZDB-SSW-DQC041; the Program of Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China under contract No. 2015FY210300; the National Natural Science Foundation of China under contract No. 41061130543; the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research under contract No. 843.10.003 as part of the NSFC-NOW “Water ways, Harbours, Estuaries and Coastal Engineering” scheme; the self-deployment project of Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences under contract No. YIC755021012.
Keywords
- benthic metabolism
- bioturbation
- Huanghe River (Yellow River) Delta
- mud snail Bullacta exarata
- nutrient flux
- oxygen flux