Dynamic of organic matter and meiofaunal community on a river-dominated shelf (Rhône prodelta, NW Mediterranean Sea): Responses to river regime

Type Article
Date 2021-05
Language English
Author(s) Pruski Audrey M.1, Rzeznik-Orignac Jadwiga1, Kerhervé Philippe2, Vétion Gilles, Bourgeois Solveig1, Peru ErwanORCID1, Brosset PabloORCID1, Toussaint Flora3, Rabouille Christophe3
Affiliation(s) 1 : Sorbonne Université, CNRS, Laboratoire d’Ecogéochimie des Environnements Benthiques, LECOB, F-66650, Banyuls-sur-Mer, France
2 : Université de Perpignan Via Domitia, CNRS, Centre de Formation et de Recherche sur les Environnements Méditerranéens, CEFREM, F-66860, Perpignan, France
3 : Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, LSCE/IPSL,CEA-CNRS-UVSQ-Université Paris Saclay, 91198, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
Source Estuarine Coastal And Shelf Science (0272-7714) (Elsevier BV), 2021-05 , Vol. 253 , P. 107274 (15p.)
DOI 10.1016/j.ecss.2021.107274
WOS© Times Cited 2
Keyword(s) Mediterranean Sea, Rhone River, High-discharge event, Physical disturbance, Marine sediments, Organic matter, Meiofauna
Abstract

In the oligotrophic context of the Mediterranean Sea, riverine inputs of particulate organic matter represent an important source of food for benthic communities. However, since most of these inputs are delivered during short, but intense flood events, communities living in the vicinity of river mouths are also exposed to strong and frequent physical disturbances. A very tight and complex relationship links river dynamic and macrofaunal communities in Mediterranean deltas, but less is known on the response of meiobenthic communities to river regime. In 2010, sediments cores were collected in the Rhône River prodelta in winter and spring before the flooding of the Rhône River tributaries in June, and then twice in the early and late summer. The hypothesis was that increased runoff and export of terrigenous material would induce major changes in the sediment biochemistry, which would in turn trigger modifications in abundances and vertical distribution of the meiofauna. The origin and quality (lability, degradation state) of the different pools of organic matter preserved in these recent sediments were determined using bulk geochemical and molecular analyses (fatty acids, amino acids). Vertical profiles of descriptors for organic matter origin and quality revealed major changes in the nature of the inputs occurring at monthly time scales. Inputs of plant detritus from autumnal and winter flood events were still visible in the cores collected in February and April. A few days after the June 2010 high-discharge event, a newly deposit (∼7 cm) containing soil organic matter has recovered the prodeltaic sediments and the resident meiofaunal community, but at the end of August only 2 cm of this deposit remained. Multivariate analyses furthermore highlighted that the meiofaunal community was driven by both the trophic conditions and deposition of a new sediment layer driven by the hydrological regime of the Rhône River. In April, increased abundances of meiofauna were observed in response to the sedimentation of labile organic matter after the spring bloom. The June high-discharge event affected the meiofauna with a reduction of its abundance and the burial of the resident meiobenthic community. However, the meiofauna recovered in less than two months after this disturbance, showing the strong resilience of this component of the benthic ecosystem in this high energy environment.

Full Text
File Pages Size Access
Author's final draft 51 1 MB Open access
6 815 KB Access on demand
1 KB Access on demand
15 5 MB Access on demand
Top of the page

How to cite 

Pruski Audrey M., Rzeznik-Orignac Jadwiga, Kerhervé Philippe, Vétion Gilles, Bourgeois Solveig, Peru Erwan, Brosset Pablo, Toussaint Flora, Rabouille Christophe (2021). Dynamic of organic matter and meiofaunal community on a river-dominated shelf (Rhône prodelta, NW Mediterranean Sea): Responses to river regime. Estuarine Coastal And Shelf Science, 253, 107274 (15p.). Publisher's official version : https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecss.2021.107274 , Open Access version : https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00682/79398/