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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Ecosystem Ecology
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2024.1433365
This article is part of the Research Topic Experiments in Benthic Ecology: Using Experimental Manipulations to Study the Effects of Pressures on Benthic Organisms View all 4 articles

Benthic responses to organic enrichment under a mussel (Mytilus edulis) farm

Provisionally accepted
Marie-France Lavoie Marie-France Lavoie 1*Élise Lacoste Élise Lacoste 2Andréa M. Weise Andréa M. Weise 1Christopher W. McKindsey Christopher W. McKindsey 1*
  • 1 Maurice Lamontagne Institute, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), Mont‐Joli, Canada
  • 2 UMR9190 Centre Pour la Biodiversité Marine, l'exploitation et la Conservation (MARBEC), Sete, Languedoc-Roussillon, France

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    An in situ mesocosms experiment was used to determine the influence of mussel biodeposition on the benthic ecosystem in St. Peters Bay, Prince Edward Island, eastern Canada. Eight mussel densities (0 to 2266 mussels m-2) were placed above mesocosms to reproduce the organic enrichment from a mussel farm over 12 weeks. The experimental procedure created an accumulation of organic matter on the seafloor with increasing mussel densities. Some benthic parameters had the predicted response to organic enrichment, with the presence of anoxic sediment in sediment profile images, increased water and organic matter content, and reduced infaunal abundance and species richness. Other parameters, including redox potential, total free sulfides, and the response of the biotic index AMBI, had inconsistent responses to mussel biodeposition-related organic enrichment. Given that other studies done in other locations have observed varying results, tresults suggest that measurement of various parameters is important to interpret the influence of deposition from mussel farms. The conditions of the site and the study duration are also parameters to consider when evaluating the results from mesocosm studies. Results from this study also suggest that St. Peters Bay is likely impacted by biodeposition from the mussels farmed there.

    Keywords: Biodeposition, organic enrichment, Mussel aquaculture, Infaunal macrobenthic communities, Mytilus edilus

    Received: 15 May 2024; Accepted: 05 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Lavoie, Lacoste, Weise and McKindsey. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Marie-France Lavoie, Maurice Lamontagne Institute, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), Mont‐Joli, Canada
    Christopher W. McKindsey, Maurice Lamontagne Institute, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), Mont‐Joli, Canada

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