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[Article Dataset] A tale of two stressors: nitrogen, microplastics, and their influence on estuarine organic matter degradation
Summary
This dataset accompanies an in-situ experiment examining how added microplastics and nitrogen — either alone or combined — affect the rate at which organic matter breaks down in estuarine sediments, across communities of different burrowing invertebrates. The data enables analysis of how two of the most widespread human-caused stressors interact at the base of coastal food webs, where organic matter recycling underpins the productivity of estuaries.
This dataset accompanies the submitted manuscript titled “A tale of two stressors: nitrogen, microplastics, and their influence on estuarine organic matter degradation.” It comprises abiotic and biotic environmental predictors collected during a 10-day in situ manipulation experiment, alongside measurements of organic matter degradation rates.Rapid organic matter degradation assays with added microplastics, nitrogen, and a combined microplastics–nitrogen treatment were deployed for 10 days across a gradient of contrasting infaunal community traits. The experimental gradient was characterised by a progression in infaunal community composition, ranging from dominance by head-down deposit-feeding polychaetes, through mixed assemblages, to dominance by deep-dwelling facultative deposit-feeding bivalves.Environmental predictors measured include loss on ignition (LOI), mean grain size, chlorophyll a (chl a), and apparent redox potential discontinuity (aRPD). Sediment surface features were used to estimate Macomona bivalve density and maldanid polychaete density. For full experimental design details, sampling protocols, and analytical methods, please refer to the associated manuscript