Organism-quartz interactions in structuring benthic communities: towards amarine bio-mineralogy?

Abiotic and biotic factors determine the distribution and structure of mari ne benthic communities but the processes invoked to explain such patterns a re often inadequate. We demonstrate that the presence of quartz grains in s ediments inhibits animal colonization on marine soft-bottoms. We suggest th at this phenomenon may be related to the oxidant properties of the quartz c rystal surface derived by the generation of silicon-based radicals due to w ater movement. The interaction between organisms and the crystallographic s tructure of substrata might play a neglected but important role in structur ing coastal benthic communities.