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Abstract: Biogenic bottom features, animal burrows and biological activities interact with the hydrodynamics of the sediment–water interface to produce altered patterns of sediment erosion, transport and deposition which have consequences for large-scale geomorphologic features. It has been suggested that depending on the hydrodynamic status of the habitat, the biological activity on the bottom may have a variety of effects. In some cases, different bioturbation activities by the same organism can result in different consequences. The burrowing crab Neohelice granulata is the most important bioturbator at SW Atlantic saltmarshes and tidal plains. Because of the great variety of habitats that this species may inhabit, it is possible to compare its bioturbation effects between zones dominated by different hydrodynamic conditions. Internal marsh microhabitats, tidal creeks bottoms and basins, and open mudflats were selected as contrasting zones for the comparison on a large saltmarsh at Bahía Blanca Estuary (Argentina). Crab burrows act as passive traps of sediment in all zones, because their entrances remain open during inundation periods at high tide. Mounds are generated when crabs remove sediments from the burrows to the surface and become distinctive features in all the zones. Two different mechanisms of sediment transport utilizing mounds as sediment sources were registered. In the first one, parts of fresh mound sediments were transported when exposed to water flow during flooding and ebbing tide, with higher mound erosion where currents were higher as compared to internal marsh habitats and open mudflats. In the second mechanism, mounds exposed to atmospheric influence during low tide became desiccated and cracked forming ellipsoidal blocks, which were then transported by currents in zones of intense water flow in the saltmarsh edge. Sedimentary dynamics varied between zones; crabs were promoting trapping of sediments in the internal saltmarsh (380gm−2 day−1) and open mudflats (1.2kgm−2 day−1), but were enhancing sediment removal in the saltmarsh edge (between 10 and 500gm−2 day−1 in summer). The implication is that biologically mediated sedimentological changes could be different among microhabitats, potentially leading to contrasting geomorphologic effects within a particular ecosystem. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The effect of the SW Atlantic intertidal burrowing crab Neohelice (Chasmagnathus) granulata on benthic metabolism, benthic flux, and benthic N cycling processes was investigated through field experiments and in situ benthic chambers incubations. Our experimental results show that the presence and activity of N. granulata and its burrows may affect the direction and magnitude of nutrient benthic fluxes. Bioturbation enhanced ammonium efflux at mudflats, and influx at marshes. The flux of nitrate toward the sediment was stimulated by crabs at light and dark conditions in marshes, but only under light exposure in mudflats. Crab bioturbation stimulated benthic metabolism, N mineralization, nitrification and denitrification potentials in both sites. Crabs seem to have contrasting effects on dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) availability between marshes and mudflats, as reflected on benthic DIN flux. This different effect on DIN availability and also the possible different effects of crabs on N2-fixers organisms could explain the opposite N2 fixation pattern found for both habitats, since crabs promoted N2 fixation in marshes, but diminished its rate in mudflats. Thus, the results obtained here through manipulative field experiments using benthic chambers suggest that macrofauna may influence the N benthic cycle and DIN fluxes in estuarine sediments. Besides, these macrofauna effects could be context-dependent, being many of them opposite between mudflats and marshes. We concluded that the above mentioned effects and the bioturbation–macrophytes interaction may be affecting the dissolved nutrient exportation from marshes to open waters. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Here we evaluated the response to eutrophication in terms of abundance and diversity of flora and fauna in a semi-desert macrotidal coastal system (San Antonio bay, Patagonia, Argentina, 40° 48′ S) where signs of eutrophication (high nutrient concentration, seaweed blooms, high growth rate of macroalgae) have been reported. We compared abundances and species composition of macroalgae, small infaunal and epifaunal invertebrates, and birds associated with tidal channels of the San Antonio Bay subject to contrasting anthropogenic influence. Macroalgae were more abundant and diverse in the channel closer to human activity where nutrient concentrations were also higher. In contrast to what others have observed in eutrophic sites, small invertebrates and birds were also more abundant and diverse in the channel with macroalgal blooms and high nutrient concentration. The large water flushing during the tidal cycle could prevent anoxic or hypoxic events, making the environment suitable for consumers. Thus, this could be a case in which eutrophication supports high densities of consumers by increasing food availability, rather than negatively affecting the survival of organisms. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Interactions among plants have been hypothesized to be context dependent, shifting between facilitative and competitive in response to variation in physical and biological stresses. This hypothesis has been supported by studies of the importance of positive and negative interactions along abiotic stress gradients (e.g., salinity, desiccation), but few studies have tested how variation in biotic stresses can mediate the nature and strength of plant interactions. We examined the hypothesis that herbivory regulates the strength of competitive and facilitative interactions during succession in Argentinean marshes dominated by Spartina densiflora and Sarcocornia perennis. Spartina densiflora is preferred by the dominant herbivore in the system, the crab Chasmagnathus granulatus. We experimentally manipulated crab herbivory, plant structure, and shade, and we found that, when herbivory was low in the spring and summer, competitive interactions between plants were dominant, but in the fall, when herbivory was highest, facilitative interactions dominated, and Spartina densiflora survival was completely dependent upon association with Sarcocornia perennis. Moreover, experimental removal of Sarcocornia perennis across recently disturbed tidal flats revealed that, while Sarcocornia perennis positively affected small Spartina densiflora patches by decreasing herbivory, as patch size increases and they can withstand the impact of herbivory, competitive interactions predominated and Spartina densiflora ultimately outcompeted Sarcocornia perennis. These results show that herbivory can mediate the balance between facilitative and competitive processes in vascular plant communities and that the strength of consumer regulation of interactions can vary seasonally and with patch size.