Bioturbation in a Declining Oxygen Environment, in situ Observations from Wormcam

Bioturbation, the displacement and mixing of sediment particles by fauna or flora, facilitates life supporting processes by increasing the quality of marine sediments. In the marine environment bioturbation is primarily mediated by infaunal organisms, which are susceptible to perturbations in their surrounding environment due to their sedentary life history traits. Of particular concern is hypoxia, dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations ≤2.8 mg l−1, a prevalent and persistent problem that affects both pelagic and benthic fauna. A benthic observing system (Wormcam) consisting of a buoy, telemetering electronics, sediment profile camera, and water quality datasonde was developed and deployed in the Rappahannock River, VA, USA, in an area known to experience seasonal hypoxia from early spring to late fall. Wormcam transmitted a time series of in situ images and water quality data, to a website via wireless internet modem, for 5 months spanning normoxic and hypoxic periods. Hypoxia was found to significantly reduce bioturbation through reductions in burrow lengths, burrow production, and burrowing depth. Although infaunal activity was greatly reduced during hypoxic and near anoxic conditions, some individuals remained active. Low concentrations of DO in the water column limited bioturbation by infaunal burrowers and likely reduced redox cycling between aerobic and anaerobic states. This study emphasizes the importance of in situ observations for understanding how components of an ecosystem respond to hypoxia

CO depletion in the Gould Belt clouds

We present a statistical comparison of CO depletion in a set of local molecular clouds within the Gould Belt using Sub-millimetre Common User Bolometer Array (SCUBA) and Heterodyne Array Receiver Programme (HARP) data. This is the most wide-ranging study of depletion thus far within the Gould Belt. We estimate CO column densities assuming local thermodynamic equilibrium and, for a selection of sources, using the radiative transfer code RADEX in order to compare the two column density estimation methods. High levels of depletion are seen in the centres of several dust cores in all the clouds. We find that in the gas surrounding protostars, levels of depletion are somewhat lower than for starless cores with the exception of a few highly depleted protostellar cores in Serpens and NGC 2024. There is a tentative correlation between core mass and core depletion, particularly in Taurus and Serpens. Taurus has, on average, the highest levels of depletion. Ophiuchus has low average levels of depletion which could perhaps be related to the anomalous dust grain size distribution observed in this cloud. High levels of depletion are often seen around the edges of regions of optical emission (Orion) or in more evolved or less dynamic regions such as the bowl of L1495 in Taurus and the north-western region of Serpens