Deposit-feeding sea cucumbers enhance mineralization and nutrient cycling in organically-enriched coastal sediments

Mactavish, T; Stenton-Dozey, J; Vopel, K; Savage, C

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0050031

Mactavish, T; Stenton-Dozey, J; Vopel, K; Savage, C

Abstract

Bioturbators affect multiple biogeochemical interactions and have been suggested as suitable candidates to mitigate organic matter loading in marine sediments. However, predicting the effects of bioturbators at an ecosystem level can be difficult due to their complex positive and negative interactions with the microbial community.

Keywords

Ammonia; Animals; Biomass; Ecosystem; Geologic sediments; Nitrates; Oxygen; Phosphorus; Sea cucumbers; Seawater

Date

2012

Source

PLoS ONE 7(11): e50031. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0050031

Item Type

Journal Article

Publisher

PLoS

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0050031

Publisher's Version

http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0050031

Rights Statement

2012 MacTavish et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.