Photosynthesis vs. irradiance curves for six species of macroalgae from the Seychelles Islands under four levels of nutrient enrichment

Littler, Mark M.; Littler, Diane S.

doi:10.5479/si.00775630.374.1

Cited by 15 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…P max and R d differ greatly between species and especially within seasons, as they are conditioned by temperature (Raven and Geider 1988, Davison 1991, Henley 1993. The ultraoligotrophy of the waters in Cabrera, with annual average nitrate values around 0.47 μmol l -1 and phosphate values around 0.05 μmol l -1 (Ballesteros and Zabala 1993) could also limit P max , as it has been reported in tropical seas by Lapointe et al (1987), Littler et al (1988) and Littler and Littler (1992), and in temperate seas by Flores-Moya et al (1995). In fact the phosphorous content in the tissues of the six brown algae are extremely low (0.05% to 0.09%), and nitrogen ranges between 1% and 1.9%.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Photosynthetic activity of macroalgae along a bathymetric gradient: interspecific and seasonal variability

Sant

Ballesteros

2020

Sci. Mar.

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Marine macroalgae are unevenly distributed with depth, with substitutions of the dominant species along the bathymetric gradient. Since light shows a sharp decrease with depth and is a critical factor for algal growth, we hypothesize that species dominating at a certain depth are the best adapted to the light environment reaching that depth. To this end, we selected seven species of Mediterranean macroalgae distributed from 0 to 50 m depth and looked for their photosynthetic performances. Photosynthetic responses showed striking differences, with photosynthetic efficiencies increasing at increasing depths. However, neither oxygen production at high light levels nor respiration are related to depth but seem to respond to other factors such as thallus thickness or nutrient availability. Some species show high production values in agreement with their high productivity and fast growth, while others show low production values but high biomass and durability. Thus, the species that dominates at each light level seems to be the one that makes best use of the light environment to accomplish its life cycle. Actividad fotosintética de macroalgas a lo largo de un gradiente batimétrico: variabilidad interespecífica y estacionalResumen: Las macroalgas marinas se distribuyen de forma desigual en profundidad, observándose una substitución de las especies dominantes a lo largo del eje batimétrico. Como la luz muestra una disminución muy marcada con la profundidad y es un factor crítico para el crecimiento de las algas, nuestra hipótesis es que aquellas especies que dominan a una cierta profundidad son las que están mejor adaptadas al ambiente lumínico de esa profundidad. Para comprobarlo hemos seleccionado siete especies de algas marinas mediterráneas distribuidas entre 0 y 50 m de profundidad y hemos calculado sus parámetros fotosintéticos. Las respuestas fotosintéticas muestran grandes diferencias entre especies, con las eficiencias fotosintéticas que aumentan al aumentar la profundidad donde crecen las algas. Sin embargo, tanto la producción de oxígeno a elevados niveles de luz como la respiración no están relacionadas con la profundidad, y parecen determinadas por otros factores como el grosor del talo o la disponibilidad de nutrientes. Algunas especies muestran valores de producción elevados, en sintonía con su alta productividad y rápido crecimiento, mientras que otras muestran bajos valores de producción pero una elevada biomasa y perdurabilidad. Así pues, las especies que dominan en cada ambiente lumínico parecen ser aquellas que utilizan de mejor manera la luz disponible donde crecen para completar con éxito su ciclo de vida. Palabras clave: macroalgas; fotosíntesis; gradientes de profundidad; eficiencia; luz.Citation/Como citar este artículo: Sant N., Ballesteros E. 2020. Photosynthetic activity of macroalgae along a bathymetric gradient: interspecific and seasonal variability. Sci. Mar. 84(1): 7-16. https://doi.org/10.3989/scimar.04995.06AEditor: E. Cebrián.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Photosynthetic activity of macroalgae along a bathymetric gradient: interspecific and seasonal variability

Sant

Ballesteros

2020

Sci. Mar.

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“…Note that both these light levels are 10 times greater than those known to saturate the photosynthetic rate of a broad variety of algae (Luning 1981, Littler andLittler 1992), indicating that shading was not an important artifact negatively affecting photosynthesis. 3.4% at 0900 (n = 10 pairs), 18.6 ?…”

Section: Cage Controlsmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Total light intensity at noon averaged 1016 ± 51 f..Lmol photons·m-2 ·s-1 inside cages and 1248 ± 7 f..Lmol photons·m-2 ·s-1 outside cages. Note that both these light levels are 10 times greater than those known to saturate the photosynthetic rate of a broad variety of algae (Luning 1981, Littler andLittler 1992), indicating that shading was not an important artifact negatively affecting photosynthesis. Conversely, because photosynthesis by some shallow-reef algae can be photoinhibited at midday (Hanelt 1992), it is also possible that shading by cages may have actually provided a benefit to the enclosed algae.…”

Section: Cage Controlsmentioning

confidence: 95%

Succession and Herbivory: Effects of Differential Fish Grazing on Hawaiian Coral‐Reef Algae

Hixon¹,

Brostoff²

1996

Ecological Monographs

200

159

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JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Sun, Abstract. Most general models do not include herbivory as a major agent of successional change. Potentially, herbivores can affect succession in three ways: accelerating or decelerating the rate of succession, where the sequence of dominant species is unaltered, or deflecting succession onto a new trajectory, where the species composition of dominants becomes substantially different than during ungrazed succession. We examined these alternatives for benthic algae on a coral-reef crest off Oahu, Hawaii. In this system, exposed coral-rock surfaces naturally undergo one of two major grazing regimes: (1) relatively protected inside defended territories of the damselfish Stegastes fasciolatus (Pomacentridae), where the benthos is dominated by filamentous algae; or (2) exposed to abundant schooling parrotfishes (Scaridae) and surgeonfishes (Acanthuridae) outside territories, where the bottom is covered mostly by crustose algae. We compared the effects of this differential grazing on primary succession, relative to ungrazed succession, by distributing on the same date 1332 settling surfaces among three treatments: exposed inside damselfish territories, exposed just outside territories, and within fish-exclusion cages just outside territories. To balance the advantages and disadvantages of different settling surfaces, we used equal numbers of each of three kinds of 50-cm2 settling plates: naturally contoured coral rock, coral rock cut into flat plates, and roughly sanded PVC plastic. To follow relative successional pathways, we sampled destructively 63 plates (21 from each grazing treatment) 17 times over 1 yr. Plates placed in the field several months before and after the main experiment suggested no seasonal differences in algal colonization. A concurrent cage-control experiment involving 144 settling plates, combined with measurements of light and water motion inside vs. outside cages, indicated that the secondary effects of cages were minor compared to the primary effect of preventing fish grazing.In the absence of fish grazing within cages, algal succession over the year followed three stages: early dominance by simple green and brown filaments (such as Enteromorpha rhizoidea and Ectocarpus indicus), a midsuccessional stage dominated by thin and finely branched red filaments (such as Centroceras clavulatum and Taenioma perpusillum), and a late stage dominated by blades and coarsely branched thick filaments (especially Tolypoicladia glomerulata). Species diversity followed a unimodal pattern during ungrazed succession, declining as a few species of late-stage algae predominated. Inside damselfish territories, succession was decelera...

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“…On the other hand, in red algae, the main antenna pigments, chlorophyll a (Chl a ) and phycobiliproteins, which are considered nitrogen reserves, increase their concentration when subjected to high nitrogen availability (Bird et al ; Lapointe and Duke ; García‐Sánchez et al ; Andria et al ; Kim et al ). Under these conditions, an increase in algal photosynthetic rates, and ultimately growth has been reported (e.g., Lapointe and Duke ; Littler and Littler ; Kim et al ). Also, an increase in secondary metabolites, e.g., phenolic compounds, has been reported in response to increased nutrient availability (Cabello‐Pasini et al ).…”

mentioning

confidence: 87%

Interactive effects of marine heatwaves and eutrophication on the ecophysiology of a widespread and ecologically important macroalga

Gouvêa

Schubert

Martins

et al. 2017

Limnology & Oceanography

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Extreme temperature events are becoming more recurrent and are more frequent with major impacts on coastal ecosystems, which are additionally impacted by increasing urbanization, resulting in high nutrient load. So far little is known about cumulative and/or interactive effects of global and local stressors on species' performance. Here, we evaluated the single and combined effects of simulated heatwaves and eutrophication on the ecophysiology of Laurencia catarinensis in a bi-factorial mesocosm experiment. The algae were exposed for 30 d to three different temperatures (208C, 248C, 288C) and nutrient concentrations (low, intermediate, high) and their nutrient uptake rates, photosynthetic performance, growth rates, pigment and phenolic compound concentrations, as well as antioxidant capacity was determined and compared between treatments. Under low nutrient concentration, physiological performance and growth decreased with increasing temperatures. In contrast, they increased with higher nutrient availability and moderate temperature increase close to the summer average temperature, but largely declined upon exposure to higher temperature (288C). This decline seemed to be related to oxidative stress, as indicated by an increase of compounds with antioxidant properties (lutein, zeaxanthin, phenols). Our data show that all measured parameters were affected by temperature and nutrient availability, with an interactive effect between these two factors, indicating that increasing temperature will influence macroalgal performance, and even more dramatically in coastal systems that are highly impacted by urbanization. However, the direction of the response will be determined by nutrient availability and will also depend on the magnitude of the temperature increase, that is, whether it surpasses the thermal threshold of the species.Marine macroalgae are dominant and essential components of coastal ecosystems around the world (Gattuso et al. 1998;Harley et al. 2012) and are currently threatened by a multitude of stressors, such as those related to global climate change (Harley et al. 2006(Harley et al. , 2012, but also locally by increasing nutrient and sediment loading, the overfishing and spread of invasive species (Worm and Lotze 2006;Schmidt and Scheibling 2007). Current changes in seawater temperature, due to climatic change, predict for the end of this century a continuous warming of near-surface air temperature, on the order of 2-78C with regional, seasonal and diurnal

show abstract

Photosynthesis vs. irradiance curves for six species of macroalgae from the Seychelles Islands under four levels of nutrient enrichment

Cited by 15 publications

References 24 publications

Photosynthetic activity of macroalgae along a bathymetric gradient: interspecific and seasonal variability

Photosynthetic activity of macroalgae along a bathymetric gradient: interspecific and seasonal variability

Succession and Herbivory: Effects of Differential Fish Grazing on Hawaiian Coral‐Reef Algae

Interactive effects of marine heatwaves and eutrophication on the ecophysiology of a widespread and ecologically important macroalga

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