Microplastic-induced shifts in meiofauna and macrofauna bioturbation and oxygen penetration depth in subtidal sediments

This dataset was collected to investigate how microplastics (MPs) at current and future concentrations in a typical subtidal estuary affect bioturbation and oxygen penetration depth (OPD) facilitated by macrofauna and meiofauna within a mesocosm experiment. Over thirteen days of microplastic exposure, bioturbation depth and OPD increased, while dissolved oxygen uptake (DOU) decreased across all treatments. However, with increasing MP contamination, bioturbation depth decreased, and OPD was slightly higher in MP-amended sediments compared to control sediments. The MP-induced reduction in bioturbation compared to controls was likely due to an overall meiofauna stress response to the pollutants. However, high MP contamination caused increased bioturbation depth compared to low and medium MP levels, likely owing to an increased evasion response of the infauna. Within the dataset is a metadata sheet with explanations of each variable within the experiment and how specific values were calculated, like bioturbation potential, along with references to the relevant literature used in this work.本数据集采集自一项中宇宙实验（mesocosm experiment），旨在探究潮下带河口当前及未来浓度水平的微塑料（microplastics, MPs）对大型底栖动物（macrofauna）与小型底栖动物（meiofauna）介导的生物扰动及氧气穿透深度（oxygen penetration depth, OPD）的影响。在为期13天的微塑料暴露周期内，所有实验组的生物扰动深度与氧气穿透深度均有所升高，而溶解氧摄取量（dissolved oxygen uptake, DOU）在各组中均出现下降。然而，随着微塑料污染负荷的增加，生物扰动深度呈下降趋势，且添加微塑料的沉积物中的氧气穿透深度略高于对照组沉积物。相较于对照组，微塑料诱导的生物扰动减弱现象，大概率源于小型底栖动物对污染物的整体应激响应。但当微塑料污染水平较高时，其生物扰动深度反而高于低、中污染水平组，这可能是由于底内动物（infauna）产生了增强的逃避响应。本数据集附带一份元数据表（metadata sheet），其中对实验中的各变量进行了解释，并说明了生物扰动潜力（bioturbation potential）等特定指标的计算方法，同时列出了本研究引用的相关文献。