Influence of benthic macrofauna on the geotechnical and geophysical properties of surficial sediment, North Sea

Spatial and temporal variations in the structure of an Amphiura-Echinocardium macrobenthic community were studied in relation to geotechnical and geophysical properties of the seabed at a muddy-sand site in the seasonally stratified region of the southern North Sea. Vertical profiles of geotechnical properties were recorded in sediments collected by box corer. Maxima in water, organic matter, and fine particle contents coincided with the presence of the burrowing brittle star Amphiura filiformis and the mud shrimp Callianassa subterranea in the upper and lower parts, respectively, of the cores. A significant relationship existed between the abundance of A. filiformis and the water content of the upper 0.05 m of the bed. There were important temporal variations in rigidity modulus, derived from acoustic shear wave propagation in freshly recovered cores, of the upper 0.06 m of the sediment. The rigidity modulus was 45% greater in January than in May and this has been related to the burrowing/feeding activity of the macrobenthic community; there was an inverse relationship between A. filiformis abundance and bed rigidity. Thus the bed had a lower bulk density and lower rigidity in summer due to biological modification of the sediment fabric. This implies that the bed was less resistant to erosion in the summer. Such an effect may be important during summer storms in the shallowest parts of the seasonally stratified zone (ie close to shelf fronts).