Importance of habitat diversity to changes in benthic metabolism over land-use gradients: evidence from three subtropical estuaries

Abstract

MEPS Marine Ecology Progress Series Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections MEPS 631:31-47 (2019) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps13147 Importance of habitat diversity to changes in benthic metabolism over land-use gradients: evidence from three subtropical estuaries Jian-Jhih Chen*, Naomi S. Wells, Dirk V. Erler, Bradley D. Eyre Centre for Coastal Biogeochemistry, Southern Cross University, PO Box 157, Lismore, NSW 2480, Australia *Corresponding author: k.chen.15@student.scu.edu.au ABSTRACT: Seasonal rates of benthic gross primary production, net primary production and respiration were measured and whole-system carbon budgets constructed in 3 subtropical estuaries with different catchment land-use intensities to better understand how land-use changes influence benthic metabolism. Annual benthic net ecosystem metabolism (NEM) indicates that systems become more heterotrophic with increasing land-use intensity. This is due to a combination of an increase in the area of unvegetated habitats and the unvegetated habitats becoming more heterotrophic with increasing land-use intensity. Whole-system NEM is closely linked to benthic NEM, highlighting the important control of benthic metabolism on whole-system metabolism in shallow coastal systems. Carbon mass balances show whole-system net metabolism also shifted from net autotrophic to net heterotrophic, with a concomitant switch from CO2 uptake to emission, with increasing land-use intensity. Our findings demonstrate that land-use changes shift whole-estuary metabolism by altering both habitat distribution and within-habitat metabolism rates. KEY WORDS: Estuary · Metabolism · Habitat · Land-use changes · Seagrass · Carbon budget · CO2 emissions · Net ecosystem metabolism Full text in pdf format Supplementary material PreviousNextCite this article as: Chen JJ, Wells NS, Erler DV, Eyre BD (2019) Importance of habitat diversity to changes in benthic metabolism over land-use gradients: evidence from three subtropical estuaries. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 631:31-47. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps13147 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in MEPS Vol. 631. Online publication date: November 21, 2019 Print ISSN: 0171-8630; Online ISSN: 1616-1599 Copyright © 2019 Inter-Research.