Age-Dependent Bioturbation of Deep-Sea Sediments: Tests of Mechanisms at Three Bathyal Sites

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9521116 Smith The mechanisms and rates of sediment mixing by the feeding and movements of animals, termed bioturbation, may profoundly influence chemical recycling, microstratigraphy, and faunalcommunity structure at the deep-sea floor. Recent studies of ingestion by bottom-dwelling fauna suggest they consume newly sedimented, highly organic particles. If such selective feeding is widespread, biogeochemical models, based on single bioturbation tracers, would provide unreliable predictions about bioturbation, microbial metabolism, sediment diagenesis, and strata formation. This study will test three alternative, mechanistic hypotheses by: assaying ratiotracer activities in deposit-feeder guts and on sediment particles of various sizes. Specifically, tracer-dependent mixing may result from (1) sizedependent ingestion of Th- 234-rich particles by deposit feeders, (2) selective ingestion of young, food-rich particles by deposit feeders, independent of size, or (3) passive cascade and/or active sequestering of newly deposited particles in animal burrows. ***