Table 1. Results from Permanova analysis for differences in chlorophyll-a content (µg g⁻¹), total TO¹³C (mg m⁻²) within the sediment and nematode density (ind. 10 cm⁻²) amongst experimental treatments (TR) (control, control+food, bioturbator, bio-irrigator and physical mixing) and depth (D), based on a Euclidean resemblance matrix.

Factors		Chlorophyll-a	TO13C sediment	Nematode density
TR	df	4	3	4
	MS	3.23E-03	55.92	2589.5
	Pseudo-F	3.76	6.12 a	10.10 a
D	df	8	8	8
	MS	5.74E-02	559.72	9739.8
	Pseudo-F	108.64 b	117.75 b	35.83 b
Rep (TR)	df	9	8	9
	MS	8.58E-04	9.14	0.943
	Pseudo-F	1.62	1.92	2.55
TRxD	df	32	24	32
	MS	2.73E-03	32.45	692.73
	Pseudo-F	5.16 b	6.83 b	2.55 a
Res	df	72	64	72
=  Rep(TR)xD	MS	5.28E-04	4.75	271.87

^a: 0.001 <p<0.05;

^b: p<0.001

Control was not included in the TO¹³C sediment analysis.