Fig 1.
Summary of mesocosm experiments.
(A) Side and plane views of the eelgrass pool, (B) time series of experimental schedules, (C) water temperature in the eelgrass pool (Z. pool) and reference pool (R. pool), (D) total number of eelgrass shoots in the eelgrass pool, and (E) the shoot height of eelgrass. Closed circles and error bars for the shoot height indicate the mean and 1 standard deviation (n = 18 per month), respectively.
Fig 2.
Annual element concentrations in eelgrass leaves (Leaf), epiphytes, surface sediments (SS) in the eelgrass pool.
Elemental concentrations are for (A) carbon, (B) nitrogen, (C) copper, (D) zinc, (E) cadmium, and (F) lead. Closed circle and vertical bar are the mean and 1 standard deviation, respectively. The range between horizontal bars on the vertical bar is the 1 standard error. These statistics were calculated from log-transformed data but are shown in normal scale. * P < 0.05; ** P < 0.01; *** P < 0.001.
Fig 3.
Trend of the element concentrations vs. δ13C in the surface sediment and annual concentrations in bottom sediments.
Element concentrations are for (A) carbon, (B) nitrogen, (C) copper, (D) zinc, (E) cadmium, and (F) lead. Closed and open circles are the measured data in the eelgrass and reference pools, respectively. Circles and bar in the bottom sediment are the mean and 1 standard deviation in the eelgrass pool (eel) and reference pool (ref). Solid and dashed lines in the surface sediment are the significant regression line for eelgrass and reference pools, respectively. P-values are indicated close to the related lines. Analyses were performed for log-transformed data, but results are shown in normal scale.
Fig 4.
Element concentrations for estimation of weight ratio of epiphytes on eelgrass leaves (WRE) in initial leaves (IL) for decomposition experiments, and the estimation results.
(A) C content, (B) δ13C, (C) N content, and (D) δ15N are the concentrations for WRE estimation in IL. Open triangle and square mean eelgrass leaves and epiphytes, respectively; they are sources for estimating WRE in IL. Closed circle is the IL. Error bar indicates 1 standard deviation. The estimated probability distribution of the WRE is shown in (E). The solid line is the probability density of WRE determined by C content and δ13C. The dashed line is the density determined by C, δ13C, N, and δ15N. The density was shown as 100 fractions between 0.0 and 1.0 for 10,000 iterations.
Fig 5.
Summary of results for decomposition experiments.
(A) Estimated probability distributions of carbon content in initial leaves for decomposition experiments, and (B) experimental results of carbon content vs. experimental days. The density in (A) is shown as 100 fractions between 15 and 40 for 100,000 iterations. The closed circle and error bar in (B) indicate the mean and 1 standard deviation, respectively. Experimental and statistical results for Cu, Zn, Cd, and Pb vs. carbon content are shown in (C), (D), (E), and (F). In these figures, closed circles, and solid and dashed lines indicate experimental results, and the mean and 95% credible interval, respectively. These statistical analyses were performed by log-transformed data, but results are shown in normal scale.
Table 1.
Mean and 95% credible interval (CI) of parameters for the model of decomposition experiments.