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Change of Topography and Sediment Characteristics on an Intertidal Mud-Flat Following Mass-Mortality of the Amphipod Corophium Volutator

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

Kim N. Mouritsen ,
Lone T. Mouritsen  and
K. Thomas Jensen
Kim N. Mouritsen
Affiliation:
Department of Marine Ecology, Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Aarhus, Finlandsgade 14, DK-8200 Aarhus, Denmark
Lone T. Mouritsen
Affiliation:
Department of Marine Ecology, Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Aarhus, Finlandsgade 14, DK-8200 Aarhus, Denmark
K. Thomas Jensen
Affiliation:
Department of Marine Ecology, Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Aarhus, Finlandsgade 14, DK-8200 Aarhus, Denmark
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Extract

A Corophium-bed characterized by a mosaic of emerged areas and tidal pools during low water was established on an intertidal flat in the southern part of the Danish Wadden Sea. In spring 1990, the plateaux harboured relatively high densities of the amphipod Corophium volutator, whereas the amphipods were almost absent in the pools. Following a parasite-induced mass-mortality in the population of Corophium, summer 1990, the plateaux of the bed were subjected to sediment erosion. The heterogeneous plateau-pool structure disappeared, accompanied by increased median particle diameter and decreased silt content in the former plateau sediment. These events were accompanied by increased chlorophyll-a concentrations in the sediment of both plateau and pool areas.

The results suggest Corophium volutator to be the single most important organism stabilizing the plateau sediment, and hence, the heterogeneous topographic structure of the Corophium-bed. It is proposed that the stabilizing effect of Corophium burrows also in deeper sediment strata may outweigh the surface stabilizing influence of epipelic diatoms, as well as the negative effect of amphipods eating the diatoms, in non-cohesive coarser sediments.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 78 , Issue 4 , November 1998 , pp. 1167 - 1180
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1998

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