Bioengineering experiment on Schiermonnikoog 2015: natural composition of diatom assemblages and biovolume measured across a mussel bed

In 2015 the Marine Ecology lab. (Eriksson Lab. at the Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences [GELIFES], University of Groningen, The Netherlands); tested the effect of different intertidal bioengineering bivalve habitats on the sediment community. We did this by adding different small scale (0.5 by 0.5 m) bivalve assemblages to the intertidal; the treatments included blue mussel reefs, cockle beds, dead shell assemblages, different types of fencing a to protect the bivalves from bird and crab predation; and fencing controls to test for fence effects. We measured effects on sediment conditions (OM, cohesion, erosion), diatom community composition and development (species composition based on cell counts and biovolume, chlorophyll a concentrations), and infauna abundance. The field experiment in the intertidal ran from 30 April to 10 June 2015 and complementary field samples were collected around a natural blue mussel bed on the same tidal flat on 7 October 2015 (N 53.489, E 6.230 degrees).