Benthic oxygen and nitrogen fluxes measured by box core incubation and aquatic eddy covariance technique at a cold-water coral reef in the NE Atlantic

Cold-water coral (CWC) reefs are distributed globally and form complex three-dimensional structures on the deep seafloor, providing habitat for numerous species. Here, we measured the community O2 and dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) flux of CWC reef habitats with different coral cover and bare sediment (acting as reference site) in the Logachev Mound area (NE Atlantic). Two methodologies were applied: the non-invasive in situ aquatic eddy co-variance (AEC) technique, and ex situ whole box core (BC) incubations. The AEC system was deployed twice per coral mound (69 h in total), providing an integral estimate of the O2 flux from a total reef area of up to 500 m2, with mean O2 consumption rates ranging from 11.6 ± 3.9 to 45.3 ± 11.7 mmol O2 m-2 d-1 (mean ± SE). CWC reef community O2 fluxes obtained from the BC incubations ranged from 5.7 ± 0.3 to 28.4 ± 2.4 mmol O2 m-2 d-1 (mean ± SD) while the O2 flux measured by BC incubations on the bare sediment reference site reported 1.9 ± 1.3 mmol O2 m-2 d-1 (mean ± SD). Overall, O2 fluxes measured with AEC and BC showed reasonable agreement, except for one station with high habitat heterogeneity. Our results suggest O2 fluxes of CWC reef communities in the North East Atlantic are around five times higher than of sediments from comparable depths and living CWCs are driving the increased metabolism. DIN flux measurements by the BC incubations also revealed around two times higher DIN fluxes at the CWC reef (1.17 ± 0.87 mmol DIN m-2 d-1), compared to the bare sediment reference site (0.49 ± 0.32 mmol DIN m-2 d-1), due to intensified benthic release of NH4+. Our data indicate that the amount of living corals and dead coral framework largely contributes to the observed variability in O2 fluxes on CWC reefs. A conservative estimate, based on the measured O2 and DIN fluxes, indicates that CWC reefs process 20% to 35% of the total benthic respiration on the southeasterly Rockall Bank area, which demonstrates that CWC reefs are important to carbon and nitrogen mineralization at the habitat scale.

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de Froe, Evert, Rovelli, Lorenzo, Glud, Ronnie N, Maier, Sandra, Duineveld, Gerard C A, Mienis, Furu, Lavaleye, Marc, van Oevelen, Dick (2020). Dataset: Benthic oxygen and nitrogen fluxes measured by box core incubation and aquatic eddy covariance technique at a cold-water coral reef in the NE Atlantic. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.911412

DOI retrieved: 2020

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Field Value
Imported on November 30, 2024
Last update November 30, 2024
License CC-BY-4.0
Source https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.911412
Author de Froe, Evert
Given Name Evert
Family Name de Froe
More Authors
Rovelli, Lorenzo
Glud, Ronnie N
Maier, Sandra
Duineveld, Gerard C A
Mienis, Furu
Lavaleye, Marc
van Oevelen, Dick
Source Creation 2020
Publication Year 2020
Subject Areas
Name: Ecology

Related Identifiers
Title: Benthic Oxygen and Nitrogen Exchange on a Cold-Water Coral Reef in the North-East Atlantic Ocean
Identifier: https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2019.00665
Type: DOI
Relation: References
Year: 2019
Source: Frontiers in Marine Science
Authors: de Froe Evert , Rovelli Lorenzo , Glud Ronnie N , Maier Sandra R , Duineveld Gerard C A , Mienis Furu , Lavaleye Marc , van Oevelen Dick .