Benthic fluxes of oxygen and nutrients under the influence of macrobenthic fauna on the periphery of the intermittently hypoxic zone in the Baltic Sea

Understanding the role of benthic organisms in marine sediments is becoming increasingly important with the growing problem of eutrophication of marine ecosystems around the world, including the Baltic Sea. Therefore, we have conducted a series of incubation experiments on sediment cores collected from sites characterized by varying oxygen conditions and measured the influx (uptake by sediment) of oxygen as well as the sediment–water exchange of phosphate, ammonia and silicate. The research involved macrozoobenthic communities that clearly reflect oxygen deficiency episodes in the past. We also used Fick's first law to calculate diffusive fluxes of nutrients.