A laboratory assessment of the survival and vertical movement of two epibenthic gastropod species, Hydrobia ulvae (Pennant) and Littorina littorea (Linnaeus), after burial in sediment

Abstract

Physical disturbance may result in the burial of the epibenthic fauna in sediment. The patches thus created undergo a `recovery' which may include the buried fauna migrating through the sediment to regain their original position in the sediment. A series of laboratory experiments were carried out to investigate the effects of prolonged burial on two epibenthic gastropod species, Hydrobia ulvae and Littorina littorea, under various sediment temperature regimes. Their ability to regain the sediment surface under simulated winter (i.e. 7.5°C) and summer (i.e. 20.3°C) temperature conditions was studied in relation to the depth and the duration of burial. The effects of sediment silt and water content was also examined in a separate experiment. The proportion of H. ulvae surviving burial in natural sediment to 5 cm depth decreased with increasing duration of burial and sediment temperature. Burial to 5 cm was fatal to L. littorea within 24 h at all the temperatures examined. In sediment mixtures which had, by dint of large interstitial spaces, a good supply of oxygen or which were very fluid (i.e. `high silt-high water' sediment) a large proportion of H. ulvae and L. littorea regained the surface within 1 day of burial. No individuals of either species regained the surface in sediment mixtures with high silt and low water contents, this included the unaltered natural sediment treatment. In all cases, the depth of burial significantly reduced the surface regaining ability of L. littorea while it had no effect on H. ulvae. The survival and the escape behaviour of buried H. ulvae and L. littorea is discussed in relation to their respiratory metabolism and the oxygen stress in the sediment. The potential contribution of the buried fauna to the recovery of soft-bottom patches is assessed.