Physiological responses of the seagrass Posidonia oceanica to elevated organic matter content in sediments: An experimental assessment
By Marta Pérez, Olga Invers, J. Ruiz, M. Frederiksen, M. Holmer. 2007
85 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Abstract Here we studied the effects of adding organic carbon and nutrients to sediment on the physiology and survival of the seagrass Posidonia oceanica in a field experiment in the Medes Islands (NE Spain). Nine randomly selected plots were established at a depth of 10 m; three were enriched with organic carbon (OM treatment), three with organic carbon and nutrients (OMN treatment), and three were kept as controls (CON). The experiment was performed over 5 months and sampling of plants and sediments was done in March, May and July 2002. Sediment sulfide pools and pore water ammonium concentrations increased significantly in OM and OMN plots, both treatments showing increased reducing conditions in the sediment. Plants in these two treatments showed higher mortality and lower biomass compared to plants from CON plots. The greatest effects on seagrass occurred in the OMN plots, indicating a synergistic effect of organic carbon and nutrient additions. Treatments had significant effects on plant nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P) metabolism, shown by an increase in free amino acid (FAA) content, a change in FAA composition and a lack of increase in N and P tissue content. Treated plants showed higher g -aminobutyric acid (GABA) and malate concentrations and lower concentrations of non-structural carbohydrates compared to CON, indicating that anaerobic respiration in below-ground tissues occurred. Several of the physiological changes shown by P. oceanica can be interpreted as adaptations to anoxia exposure. However, the increased mortality in treated plots demonstrates that this seagrass does not tolerate highly reduced sediments.
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/96dc67cef7057f2d2be410fba2c7dd996f7f5b81
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- Carlos M. Duarte
- N. Marbà
- M. Holmer
- L. Gillis
- TJ Bouma
- M. Lamote
- CG Jones
- M. van Katwijk
Citations in the corpus
- Potential for landscape-scale positive interactions among tropical marine ecosystems (2014, background): “%) due to plant mortality and greater leaf abscission (Perez et al. 2007).”
- Deterioration of Sediment Quality in Seagrass Meadows (Posidonia oceanica) Invaded by Macroalgae (Caulerpa sp.) (2009, background): “Reduced growth upon sulfide exposure has been found for a number of different seagrasses, e.g., Halophila ovalis (Kilminster et al. 2008), Zostera marina (Goodman et al. 1995; Holmer and Bondgaard 2001), Thalassia testudinum (Koch et al. 2007), including P. oceanica (Marba et al. 2007; Perez et al.”