Effects of fluvial discharges on meiobenthic and macrobenthic variability in the Vistula River prodelta (Baltic Sea)

• Factors related to fluvial discharges are best correlated to benthic variability.
• Fluvial discharges define the food availability and disturbance regimes.
• Benthic communities in delta front are taxonomically impoverished.
• The richest fauna dwells in the plume influence area.
• Benthic communities are resilient to strong environmental seasonality.

The role of environmental variability produced by river discharges in shaping the spatial and seasonal patterns of meiobenthic and macrobenthic communities was studied in the Vistula River (Baltic Sea) prodelta. Seven stations located in the delta front, the plume influence area and the distal zone of the prodelta were visited over the four seasons of 2012. Meiofauna, macrofauna, water (temperature, salinity, and suspended matter) and sediments (grain size, POC, TN, δ15N and δ13C and photosynthetic pigments) were analysed. The seasonal variations in the river discharges (with maximum flows in spring) resulted in a strong temporal variability in the studied environmental characteristics. In the benthic biota, the signals of seasonal variability, if present, were much weaker than spatial zonation. The benthic communities inhabiting the delta front where the main bulk of fluvial materials was deposited were taxonomically impoverished. The richest fauna dwelled within the plume influence area where the physical disturbance ceased and primary marine production was enhanced by river transported nutrients. In the distal zone outside the river influence, the fauna was dominated by deeper dwelling species, and the numbers of individuals and taxa decreased. Factors related to the riverine discharges (i.e., salinity, mineral suspension, POC and δ13C in the water and sediments) were identified as having high correlation with variability in the meiofaunal and macrofaunal community descriptors. Evidently, the interplay of food (i.e., the quantity and quality of organic matter) and disturbance (i.e., the deposition of river transported minerals) constraints shaped the patterns of benthic variability in the prodelta of the second largest river entering the Baltic Sea.