Résumé: Ecosystem engineers change abiotic conditions, community assembly and ecosystem functioning. Consequently, their loss may modify thresholds of ecosystem response to disturbance and undermine ecosystem stability. This study investigates how loss of the bioturbating lugworm Arenicola marina modifies the response to macroalgal detrital enrichment of sediment biogeochemical properties, microphytobenthos and macrofauna assemblages. A field manipulative experiment was done on an intertidal sandflat (Oosterschelde estuary, The Netherlands). Lugworms were deliberately excluded from 1x m sediment plots and different amounts of detrital Ulva (0, 200 or 600 g Wet Weight) were added twice. Sediment biogeochemistry changes were evaluated through benthic respiration, sediment organic carbon content and porewater inorganic carbon as well as detrital macroalgae remaining in the sediment one month after enrichment. Microalgal biomass and macrofauna composition were measured at the same time. Macroalgal carbon mineralization and transfer to the benthic consumers were also investigated during decomposition at low enrichment level (200 g WW). The interaction between lugworm exclusion and detrital enrichment did not modify sediment organic carbon or benthic respiration. Weak but significant changes were instead found for porewater inorganic carbon and microalgal biomass. Lugworm exclusion caused an increase of porewater carbon and a decrease of microalgal biomass, while detrital enrichment drove these values back to values typical of lugworm-dominated sediments. Lugworm exclusion also decreased the amount of macroalgae remaining into the sediment and accelerated detrital carbon mineralization and CO2 release to the water column. Eventually, the interaction between lugworm exclusion and detrital enrichment affected macrofauna abundance and diversity, which collapsed at high level of enrichment only when the lugworms were present. This study reveals that in nature the role of this ecosystem engineer may be variable and sometimes have no or even negative effects on stability, conversely to what it should be expected based on current research knowledge.

Résumé: Downward fluxes of organically rich biodeposits under suspended mussel lines can cause benthic impacts such as changes in benthic community structure or microbial mat production. Quantifying sediment erosion in these coastal ecosystems is important for understanding how fluxes of organic matter and mussel biodeposits contribute to benthic pelagic coupling. Critical shear velocity (u(crit)*(t)), erosion rates and particle size distributions of resuspended sediment were measured at four stations distributed along a transect perpendicular to a mussel farm in Lagune de la Grande Entree, Iles-de-la-Madeleine (Quebec, Canada). Stations were selected underneath the outer-most mussel line (0 m) and at distances of 15,30 m and at a reference station (500 m) further along the transect. Shear velocity was measured using a calibrated portable Particle Erosion Simulator, also referred to as the BEAST (Benthic Environmental Assessment Sediment Tool). Undisturbed sediment cores obtained by divers were exposed to shear stress to compare differences between stations. Erosion sequences indicated no significant differences in u(crit)* between stations, but there were significant differences in erosion rates beneath mussel lines compared to other stations. Erosion rates were the highest in cores from beneath mussel lines, but paradoxically had the lowest u(crit)* Mean erosion rates at u*crit varied between 25 and 47 g m(-2) min(-1) and critical erosion thresholds varied between 1.58 and 1.73 cm s(-1), which compare with intensive mussel culture sites elsewhere in eastern Canada. Significant differences existed in biotic and abiotic properties of sediments which could explain variation in maximum erosion rates within and between stations. Particle sizes measured by videography of resuspended sediment at different shear velocities ranged from 02 to 3.0 mm. Quantifying sediment erosion from intact marine sediments helps to improve our mechanistic understanding of these processes, and the BEAST further contributes to predictive capability in benthic pelagic coupling modeling. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.