The Inverted Microbial Loop Stimulates Mineralisation of Sedimentary Organic Detritus

Abstract. Respiration is a key process in the organic carbon cycle of marine sediments. The microbial community is considered the dominant actor in the overall sedimentary respiration, but knowledge is lacking about interactions with other components, particularly the macrofauna. The ‘inverted microbial loop’ hypothesis suggests that macrofaunal activity stimulates the microbial respiration of organic carbon through the mixing of fresh organic carbon to depth, and subsequent priming (i.e. activation of refractory detritus by co-respiration with fresh detritus). We conducted experimental incubations to partition respiration amongst the microbial and macrofaunal components of the community and investigate interactions between them. We prepared sediment cores with native benthic communities, macrofauna only and microbial communities only. We added ¹³C labelled fresh organic matter to these cores and measured respiration over 7 days, quantifying both O₂ consumption (reflecting remineralisation of all sedimentary organic C) and production of ¹³C dissolved inorganic C (DIC, reflecting remineralisation of labile organic C).

Macrofaunal and microbial communities showed an approximately equal contribution to the total community respiration, while the fate of the added fresh organic C in different treatments suggested competition for this resource between macrofauna and microbes. Consumption of O₂, which reflected remineralisation of ambient as well as added fresh organic C, showed greater rates when macrofaunal and microbial communities were present together than the sum of their separate rates. This provides direct experimental evidence that the inverted microbial loop mechanism stimulates mineralisation of less reactive, ambient organic C. The inverted microbial loop effect is likely to be enhanced following deposition of fresh organic C onto the seafloor, as occurs after a spring bloom.