Marine heatwaves amplify benthic community metabolism and solute flux in a seafloor heating experiment

The magnitude and frequency of marine heatwaves is increasing and predicted to intensify, but our ability to understand the real-world effects on vital benthic ecosystems is lagging behind. Prior insights into the impacts of marine heatwaves are often derived from observational or laboratory studies. Observational studies may not fully disentangle the complexities of potential compound events and typically focus on severe, often lethal marine heatwaves. Laboratory studies on the other hand, while valuable for understanding specific mechanisms, often use artificial setups and can introduce unnatural disturbances that do not reflect real-world scenarios. To investigate sublethal temperature effects of marine heatwaves in a natural benthic habitat, we developed a novel approach for inducing elevated water temperatures in situ over several days. The system utilizes domestic under-floor heating technology combined with custom-made benthic chambers. We placed 10 chambers for 15 days in a bare..., , , # Marine heatwaves amplify benthic community metabolism and solute flux in a seafloor heating experiment

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.kd51c5bj0](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.kd51c5bj0)

## Description of the data and file structure

### Files and variables

The files in this repository contain all necessary information to replicate the results of the linked article. The input and output file data formats are typically .txt or .csv files. The analysis of the data was conducted in R studio with .R files included in the .zip folders. The .zip folders are grouped by data and scripts related to either the Benthic Macrofauna Community, Nutrient and Oxygen fluxes, and Temperature data of the Benthic Chambers.

### File: Community.zip

**Description:** Contains 3 data files with values for abundance, biomass, and size data of macrofaunal species identified in all 10 benthic chambers. Further contains 1 R script analysing community data.

#### **File Name:** Abundance\_sq-meter.txt

**Descri...,