Response of the arctic benthic community to excessive amounts of nontoxic organic matter

The paper presents a study of the effect of excessive amounts of organic matter (OM) on Arctic benthos. The source of nontoxic OM is from the mariculture of blue mussels in the White Sea (north-western area of Russia). The use of multivariate analysis procedures made it evident that in the Arctic conditions benthos is incapable of annual utilization of more than 1.5 kg dry OM m(-2) from an external source, Mineralization of OM accumulated in sediments will deteriorate the oxygen regime. The critical concentration of OM in sediments is 9-10%. An excess over this threshold leads to the formation of oxygen-free zones at the bottom, and degradation of benthos community. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.