Relationship of trait based bioirrigation and bioturbation indices with measured bioirrigation rates from in situ community experiments representing typical German Bight (North Sea) communities

We propose a novel trait-based bioirrigation index (IPc) that is based on body mass, abundance, burrow type, feeding type and injection pocket depth of bottom dwelling animals. The index was validated with measured bioirrigation rates from combined field (in situ communities) and manipulative (single species) experiments. Species and communities were sampled from the German Bight, North Sea. Additionally we investigated whether the bioturbation potential (BPc) of Solan et al. 2004 was able to predict bioirrigation rates. Both indices (i.e. IPc and BPc) were calculated with wet mass and ash free dry mass. The data accordingly includes: macrofaunal abundance/density, wet mass (WM) (g), dry mass (DM) (g), ash free dry mass (AFDM) (g), irrigation potential (calculated based on all three body mass units), bioturbation potential (calculated based on all three body mass units), trait scores used to calculate both IPc and BPc, irrigation rates and control corrected irrigation rates