Abstract
Laboratory experiments and field observations show that tubificid oligochaetes have important effects on sediment properties. Tubificids pelletize the surface sediment of the western and central basins of Lake Erie and increase the median sediment grain size and settling velocity by two orders of magnitude. The thickness of the pelletized layer in the lake is about 1 – 2 cm. The critical entrainment stress of pelletized sediment in box cores from Lake Erie is about twice that of unpelletized sediment. The difference in entrainment rate of sediment may be even greater. In sandy sediments from the Vermilion River, tubificids have the opposite effect: ultimate grain size in the upper 1 cm of sediment is decreased, water content is increased, and surface sediments are more easily eroded than non-pelletized sediments because the tubificids feed selectively on clay and silt size sediments.
Tubificids pump little water through their burrows, but the creation of the pelletized layer enhances the diffusion of chloride in this zone by a factor of two over deeper regions of the sediment. The burrows of tubificids do increase the permeability of Lake Erie sediment by a factor of two to four.
Sediment particle reworking by tubificids is highly directional The worms feed at depth in the sediment and deposit material at the sediment surface. Continued feeding results in an organized vertical circulation and mixing of the top 5 – 10 cm of sediment. The depth of feeding and mixing may be density dependent. The rate of sediment mixing by tubificids exceeds the sedimentation rate of new material in the western and central basins of Lake Erie.
In the laboratory, tubificids can increase the oxygen demand of lake sediments by a factor of two. Their feeding activity produces a thickened, porous, and oxidized pelletai zone at the sediment surface and causes of flux of oxygen demanding materials from depth to the sediment surface. Fifty to seventy percent of the enchanced oxygen demand may be associated with the flux of FeS from depth to the surface. The mixing of sediment by tubificids inhibits the release of phosphorous (PO4 −3) from the sediment under anoxic conditions by preventing the formation of an iron rich surface layer of sediment and by decreasing the near surface phosphorous concentration gradient in interstitial water.
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McCall, P.L., Fisher, J.B. (1980). Effects of Tubificid Oligochaetes on Physical and Chemical Properties of Lake Erie Sediments. In: Brinkhurst, R.O., Cook, D.G. (eds) Aquatic Oligochaete Biology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-3048-6_16
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