Estuarine macrofauna responses to continuous in situ nutrient addition on a tropical mudflat

•We used field experiments to examine the effect of nutrient loading on macrofauna.•Abundance, richness and diversity were negatively affected by nutrient addition.•Distributional and multivariate techniques showed changes in response to enrichment.

A field experiment to assess the effects of continuous nutrient addition on the macrobenthic community was carried out on an estuarine mudflat on the northeast coast of Brazil. The experiment began on 5 October 2005 and ended on 8 February 2006. Macrofauna was compared at approximately four-week intervals in triplicate plots with three levels (Control - C, Low Dose - LD and High Dose - HD) of weekly fertilizer additions for 17 weeks. Inorganic fertilizer (N-P-K) was applied on nine randomly defined quadrangular plots (4 m2 each). All measurements were calculated from species abundances. Multivariate analyses as well as the univariate indices (richness, abundance and Shannon-Wiener index) showed statistically significant differences between the enriched and control areas during the period of the experiment. The expected gradual response based on the succession model of Pearson and Rosenberg was not observed. The nutrient doses used were high enough to cause severe decreases in abundance, richness and evenness, and an increase in dominance.