Biofilms and Size Sorting of Fine Sediment During Erosion in Intertidal Sands

Abstract

The goal of this research was to investigate size-specific retention of clay and silt-sized grains by biofilms in sandy intertidal sediments. Sediment cores were collected from an intertidal flat in Cole Harbour, NS, and eroded at increasing shear stresses (0.08–0.60 Pa) with a Gust microcosm. Half of the cores were eroded without undergoing prior treatment, while sodium hypochlorite was added to the other cores to destroy biofilms. The disaggregated inorganic grain size distribution of sediment resuspended by the Gust microcosm was then obtained with a Multisizer™ 3 Coulter Counter®, and each treated core was compared with its corresponding untreated core. Overall, significantly less total sediment mass was resuspended from untreated cores than from treated cores. At intermediate shear stresses, the sediment resuspended from treated cores contained a greater proportion of fine and medium silts than the sediment resuspended from untreated cores. Very fine silts and clays were not retained preferentially by biofilms. The results show that biofilms stabilize the sediment, but they do not necessarily enhance the proportion of finest sediment sizes, as previously proposed.