DORMANCY STRATEGIES AND RESURRECTION ECOLOGY OF BENTHIC DIATOM SEED BANKS IN ESTUARINE SEDIMENTS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW
Abstract
Microphytobenthos consists of benthic diatoms that account for the majority of diatoms in estuarine and shallow coastal sediments, contribute to primary production, sediment stabilisation and food web support. A key characteristic of many of these taxa is the production of dormant life stages that persist in the sediment, thus providing an active community with a viable “seed bank” that can resume activity if conditions are favorable. Evidence regarding these dormant stages, however, has been numerous and widely dispersed in the literature of phycology, sediment ecology, physiology, paleolimnology and molecular ecology, and there is no unified synthesis that differentiates resting cells from resting spores in estuarine benthic systems. We used the PRISMA approach to search the peer-reviewed literature for diatom studies reporting dormancy, viability, or revival of diatoms in estuarine and coastal environments that were benthic, tychoplanktonic, or sediment-associated. This included a pool of 1294 studies, 52 of which were included in the synthesis using narrative synthesis and evidence mapping. Resting spores are morphologically distinct, heavily silicified, long-lived stages found in the centric genera, while resting cells are poorly modified vegetative cells which are more widely distributed, among pennate and benthic genera, and are more quickly revived but have shorter life spans. Nitrogen and silicate limitation, darkness from burial and salinity and temperature stress are the major controls of dormancy induction, and light, resuspension, oxygenation and nutrient addition are controls of dormancy revival. Dormancy is far from a state of “metabolic shutdown” as it is characterized by active maintenance metabolism, such as the storage of lipids and carbohydrates, defence against oxidative stress, and dissimilatory nitrate reduction under dark anoxia. The viability of estuarine and coastal sediments is confirmed by resurrection experiments, which provide a strong archive for adapting to eutrophication, warming and salinity change over decades to millennia. We suggest an integrated stress–dormancy–reshuffling–persistence–revival model, point to the widespread terminological and methodological inconsistencies and propose priorities for harmonised, multi-omics and geographically comprehensive research.
Keywords:
benthic diatoms, microphytobenthos, resting cells, resting spores, seed bank, dormancy, estuarine sediments, resurrection ecology, metabolic reshuffling, microphytobenthic resilienceDOI
https://doi.org/10.70604/jmtbas.v3i2.204References
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