Description: This study shows that macrofaunal irrigation traits constitute a valuable complement to sediment reworking traits in estimating macrofaunal impact on nutrient fluxes across the sediment-water interface. We correlated density, biomass, community bioturbation potential (BPc, an index based on reworking traits, body mass and density) and community irrigation potential (IPc, an index based on irrigation traits, body mass and density) with nitrite, nitrate, ammonium, silicate and phosphate flux data under different environmental conditions. Generalized linear models performed best with a combination of environmental conditions and irrigation trait-based indices. This was not only a direct effect of the irrigation traits, but also of the scaling factor 0.75 employed in IPc to infer metabolic activity from body mass. Accordingly, predictive models of nutrient flux across the sediment-water interface will profit greatly from incorporating macrofaunal irrigation behaviour by means of trait-based indices.

Description: We compared primary production and respiration of temperate (Helgoland, North Sea) and subtidal Arctic (Kongsfjorden, Svalbard) microphytobenthic communities during summer. The diatom communities were generally characterized as cosmopolitan, displayed no site specificity, and had similar chl a and fucoxanthin concentrations. Their net and gross photosynthesis rates and light adaptation intensities, derived from laboratory microsensor measurements, were also similar, despite differences in water temperature. Daily oxygen fluxes across the sediment− water interface were estimated by combining laboratory microprofile and planar optode measurements with in situ data on oxygen penetration and light dynamics. During the study period, the Svalbard sediments were on average net heterotrophic,while the Helgoland sediments were net autotrophic (−22.4 vs. 9.2 mmol O2 m−2 d−1). This was due to high infaunal abundance in the Svalbard sediments that caused high oxygen uptake rates in the sediments and consumption below the sediment euphotic zone. Additionally, bioirrigation of the sediment due to infaunal burrow ventilation was reduced by light; thus, the sedimentary oxygen inventory was reduced with increasing light. Conversely, light-enhanced the oxygen inventory in the Helgoland sediments. Oxygen dynamics in the Svalbard sediments were therefore dominated by bioirrigation, whereas in the Helgoland sediments they were dominated by photosynthetic oxygen production.

Description: Mollusks record valuable information in their hard parts that reflect ambient environmental conditions. For this reason, shells can serve as excellent archives to reconstruct past climate and environmental variability. However, animal physiology and biomineralization, which are often poorly un- derstood, can make the decoding of environmental signals a challenging task. Many of the routinely used shell-based proxies are sensitive to multiple different environmental and physiological variables. Therefore, the identification and in- terpretation of individual environmental signals (e.g., water temperature) often is particularly difficult. Additional prox- ies not influenced by multiple environmental variables or an- imal physiology would be a great asset in the field of paleo- climatology. The aim of this study is to investigate the poten- tial use of structural properties of Arctica islandica shells as an environmental proxy. A total of 11 specimens were ana- lyzed to study if changes of the microstructural organization of this marine bivalve are related to environmental condi- tions. In order to limit the interference of multiple parame- ters, the samples were cultured under controlled conditions. Three specimens presented here were grown at two different water temperatures (10 and 15◦C) for multiple weeks and exposed only to ambient food conditions. An additional eight specimens were reared under three different dietary regimes. Shell material was analyzed with two techniques; (1) confo- cal Raman microscopy (CRM) was used to quantify changes of the orientation of microstructural units and pigment dis-tribution, and (2) scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to detect changes in microstructural organization. Our results indicate that A. islandica microstructure is not sen- sitive to changes in the food source and, likely, shell pig- ment are not altered by diet. However, seawater temperature had a statistically significant effect on the orientation of the biomineral. Although additional work is required, the results presented here suggest that the crystallographic orientation of biomineral units of A. islandica may serve as an alterna- tive and independent proxy for seawater temperature.