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Process-Specific Recruitment Cues in Marine Sedimentary Systems
The Biological Bulletin
|December 28, 2017
Summary
Newly settled marine invertebrates, such as polychaetes and bivalves, avoid recently disturbed sediments. This rejection of altered sediment surfaces is crucial for survival, preventing erosion and mortality in marine infauna.
Area of Science:
- Marine Ecology
- Infauna Biology
- Sediment Dynamics
Background:
- High post-settlement mortality in marine infauna is often linked to sediment surface disturbances.
- Processes like sediment removal, burial, or mixing alter the original sediment surface.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the ability of newly settled infauna to discriminate between undisturbed and disturbed marine sediment surfaces.
- To determine if juvenile infauna reject or delay burrowing into recently disturbed sediments.
Main Methods:
- Experiments exposed juvenile polychaetes (Nereis vexillosa, Arenicola cristata) and bivalves (Mercenaria mercenaria) to simulated disturbances.
- Disturbances included erosional/mixing events, feces, burrow tailings, and feeding tracks.
- Burrowing initiation time and success rate were measured on disturbed versus undisturbed surfaces.
Main Results:
- Juvenile infauna showed significantly increased burrowing times and reduced burrowing success on disturbed sediment surfaces compared to undisturbed ones.
- Rejection or delayed burrowing was observed when disturbances were less than several hours old.
- Non-burrowing individuals were rapidly eroded by water flow, while burrowing individuals remained stable.
Conclusions:
- Newly settled infauna actively reject or delay burrowing into recently disturbed sediment surfaces, utilizing cues from the disturbance process itself.
- This discrimination is vital for survival, as non-burrowing individuals are susceptible to erosion.
- The findings highlight the importance of sediment surface integrity for successful infauna settlement and survival.
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