Sediment accumulation in a shallow-water meadow carpeted by a small erect bryozoan

A marine meadow covered 80–90% by a turf of the erect bryozoan Cellaria occurs over an area >10 4 m 2 west of Banjole Island (Croatia) in the northeastern Adriatic Sea. Surrounding areas are bare to patchily covered by isolated clumps of bryozoans, sponges, and ascidians attached to scattered shell and rock debris. Silt and clay comprise >90% of the mass of sediment within the meadow, and Cellaria branch fragments are the next-most-abundant component. From 13-cm to at least 25-cm depth in the meadow sediment coralline algal branch fragments are abundant, and silt and clay comprise over 50% of the sediment's mass. In contrast, sediment accumulated in the bare area adjacent to the meadow is predominantly coarse carbonate sand composed of diverse skeletal grains. Mud comprises