[Article Dataset] A tale of two stressors: nitrogen, microplastics, and their influence on estuarine organic matter degradation

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