Time-series measurements of macrobenthos abundance and sediment bioturbation intensity on a flood-dominated shelf

Four 70-m stations on the continental shelf offshore from the Eel River (northern California) were occupied at roughly four-month intervals between February 1995 and March 1998, and in August 1999. At each of the stations, profiles of excess 234Th were used to quantify sediment bioturbation intensity. In addition, at two of the stations macrofaunal abundance, species composition and functional groupings were quantified. During the study period, the Eel River displayed a range of hydrological conditions, with historically significant floods in January 1995 and January 1997 (return periods of 15 and 40 y, respectively), relatively low flows during the winters of 1995–1996 and 1998–1999 and an El Niño year characterized by moderate, but frequent discharges in 1997–1998. The January 1995 and 1997 floods deposited 3–7 cm of fine-grained, high porosity sediment with high C/N ratios and a terrestrial organic carbon signature at the study sites. The following general questions are addressed herein: (1) how do macrofaunal abundance, species composition and functional groupings vary over time? (2) Does the sediment deposition following the January 1997 flood constitute a major disturbance to the Eel shelf macrobenthos? (3) How does sediment bioturbation intensity vary in time/space and what are the main factors controlling this variation?The Eel shelf macrofauna is strongly dominated by subsurface-deposit feeding polychaetes, with anomalously low abundances of surface-deposit feeders and virtually no suspension feeders among the community dominants. The abundance data revealed a clear seasonal pattern, with peak density (∼4.5 × 104 m−2) in the fall and a factor of two lower density in the late winter/spring (∼2 × 104 m−2). Within this seasonal context there was little evidence for extraordinary mortality caused by the January 1997 flood, in that overall wintertime mortality and the mortality of most community dominants during a year (1995–1996) when there was no flood deposition were comparable to the mortality observed following the January 1997 flood. In contrast, the depth distribution of the macrofauna revealed a distinctive post-flood pattern, whereby a majority (55–70%) of individuals were temporarily found at depths >4 cm. This pattern suggests an active response by the resident fauna to sediment deposition, and supports the idea that the floods did not cause a widespread disturbance. Although there may not be clear evidence for short-term flood effects, the overall species composition and functional groupings do imply that the sedimentary environment (high sediment accumulation rates and abundant terrestrial organic matter) has had a long-term influence on the Eel shelf macrofauna.Model fits to ∼75 profiles of excess 234Th show that in general the data are consistent with a steady-state, biodiffusive model. The resultant mixing intensities ranged from 3 to 325 cm2 y−1, with averages (±standard deviation) of 35 ± 33, 24 ± 19, 37 ± 35, and22 ± 9 cm2 y−1 at stations C70, I70, L70, and O70, respectively. The average biodiffusivity for all stations and times was 29 ± 25 cm2 y−1 (N = 62). Due to the large amount of variability, which is consistent with other continental margin studies, it was not possible to detect significant spatial or temporal variability, although there is a hint of higher mixing intensities during the late summer – early fall, the period of maximal carbon flux to the seabed. Correlations between total macrofaunal abundance and mixing intensity are notably poor, whereas a slightly better correlation (r2 = 0.22) was obtained between the abundance of large animals and bioturbation intensity. By explicitly considering organic carbon flux, or some measure of seabed food resources, and the abundance of larger organisms it may be possible to predict bioturbation intensity better in future studies, although the pervasive small-scale variability detected on the Eel River shelf warrants in-depth theoretical and experimental consideration.