Effects of copper and the sea lice treatment Slice® on nutrient release from marine sediments

Copper-based antifoulant paints and the sea lice treatment Slice® are widely used, and often detectable in the sediments beneath farms where they are administered. Ten-day, whole sediment mesocosm experiments were conducted to examine how increasing sediment concentrations of copper or Slice® influenced final water column concentrations of ammonium–nitrogen (NH4–N), nitrate + nitrite–nitrogen (NOX–N) and phosphate–phosphorus (PO4–P) in the presence of the non-target, benthic organisms Corophium volutator and Hediste diversicolor. Nominal sediment concentrations of copper and Slice® had significant effects on the resulting concentrations of almost all nutrients examined. The overall trends in nutrient concentrations at the end of the 10-day incubations were highly similar between the trials with either copper or Slice®, irrespective of the invertebrate species present. This suggests that nutrient exchange from the experimental sediments was primarily influenced by the direct effect of copper/Slice® dose on the sediment microbial community, rather than the indirect effect of reduced bioturbation/irrigation due to increased macrofaunal mortality.