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THR ROLE OF SEABED DYNAMICS IN STRUCTURING A MESOHALINE MACROBENTIC INFAUNAL COMMUNITY
Citation:
Hinchey, E K. AND L. C. Schaffner. THR ROLE OF SEABED DYNAMICS IN STRUCTURING A MESOHALINE MACROBENTIC INFAUNAL COMMUNITY. Presented at Estuarine Research Federation Conference, Seattle, WA, September14-18, 2003.
Description:
Estuaries are dynamic physical environments. The stability of the sediment-water interface is influenced by sources and rates of sediment delivery and reworking of sediments by currents, tides, waves and biology, but effects of disruption of this interface on benthic biology are poorly resolved. We investigated gradients in seabed disturbance and seabed characteristics on benthic community structure and function in the mesohaline York River, a Chesapeake Bay, USA subestuary. Using multiple techniques to characterize the seabed (including sediment grain size, sediment water content, 7Be depth, depth of oxidized sediment layer, profiles of sediment Eh, physical structure of the sediment, and sediment organic content) we documented differences in magnitude of deposition and subsequent sediment reworking among five subenvironments (south shoal, secondary channel, channel flank, main channel, north shoal). Subenvironments were dominated by estuarine opportunist species. Total infaunal abundance was greatest in the north shoal, which experienced minimal deposition and physical reworking of sediment. Biomass and secondary production estimates were driven by presence of deep-dwelling bivalves, and were greatest in depositional subenvironments. These results suggest that variations in seabed characteristics across relatively small spatial scales can influence estuarine benthic community structure and function.