Effects of benthos on sediment transport: difficulties with functional grouping

Abstract

No consistent functional grouping of organisms as stabilizers vs destabilizers, respectively decreasing or enhancing erodibility, is possible. Benthic organisms can affect erodibility in particular—and sediment transport in general—via alternation (1) of fluid momentum impinging on the bed, (2) of particle exposure to the flow, (3) of adhesion between particles, and (4) of particle momentum. The net effects of a species or individual on erosion and deposition thresholds or on transport rates are not in general predictable from extant data. Furthermore, they depend upon the context of flow conditions, bed configuration, and community composition into which the organism is set. Separation of organism effects into these four categories does, however, allow their explicit incorporation into DuBoys-type and stochastic sediment dynamic models already in use and thus permits the specification of parameters whose measurement will enhance predictability of sediment transport modes and rates in natural, organism-influenced, marine settings. If the variable of prime concern is the total amount of sediment transported, rather than the frequency of transport events or the spatial pattern of erosion and eposition, and if most transport occurs in rare but intense bouts (e.g., winter storms on boreal continental shelves), then it may be possible to ignore organism effects without major sacrifices in accuracy or precision. Under high transport rates, suspended load effects override organism-produced bottom roughness, abrasion removes adhesives from transporting grains, and transport rates (normalized per unit width of the channel or bed) exceed feeding and pelletization rates. Moreover, at high rates most material transports as suspended load, effectively out of reach of the benthos. The transport rates at which organism effects are overridden, however, remain to be determined. For lower transport rates, foraging theory promises to provide insights into organism effects.