Seasonality in vegetation biometrics and its effects on sediment characteristics and meiofauna in Baltic seagrass meadows

Abstract

Seagrass meadows can act as ecosystem engineers, i.e., organisms that modify the availability of resources to other organisms. However, their possible positive impacts depend on the characteristics of the vegetation, and these can vary strongly seasonally. This study assesses seasonal variability in macrophyte taxonomic composition and seagrass biometrics in the temperate Baltic Sea eelgrass meadows. We hypothesize that the anticipated strong seasonality in vegetation cover induces parallel seasonal changes in seagrass engineering effects as indicated by changes in sediment characteristics and meiozoobenthic abundance, composition and diversity. Macrophytes, sediments, and fauna were sampled at two locations in the Puck Bay from vegetated bottoms and bare sands five times in one year. Zostera marina vegetation occurred throughout the year and showed strong seasonality with the highest values of shoot density, leaf length, and biomass in July (202.3 ± 30.0 95% CI shootsm−2) and the lowest in March (55.4 ± 15.0 shootsm−2). POC was significantly higher in vegetated sands, and these effects were evident throughout the study period regardless of variability in macrophyte vegetation. The density and diversity of meiofauna did not differ between the seagrass beds and bare sands even in summer months when vegetation was best developed. The lack of an effect of the seagrass meadows on the meiofauna can be explained by the relatively low shoot density and biomass of the studied seagrass meadows and/or higher macrobenthic predation on the vegetated bottom compared to bare sands. However, both the canopies of macrophytes and the effects of the vegetation on benthic systems could increase substantially over the course of the gradual, natural restoration of the seagrass meadows.