Shifts in seston characteristics after inundation of a European coastal salt marsh

Abstract

A microbial assay and in‐source pyrolysis mass spectrometry were used to demonstrate a shift in the characteristics of sestonic particulate organic matter after tidal inundation of a coastal salt marsh in the southwest Netherlands. Analysis of seston samples collected from the main tidal creek of the marsh during a series of tidal cycles showed that an increase in microbial degradability accompanied a more pronounced lipid character of the seston after inundation. No evidence was found that the halophyte vegetation contributed to the efflux of particulate organic matter from the marsh, indicating that the vegetation of the poorly flooded European Atlantic salt marshes may be a minor contributor of particulate organic matter to adjacent bodies of water.