Potential Impact of Photoinhibition on Microphytobenthic Primary Production on a Large Intertidal Mudflat

Abstract

Benthic microalgae, or microphytobenthos (MPB), play a key role in the land-ocean continuum. MPB primary production (PP) sustains the high biological productivity of estuarine and shallow coastal areas, including intertidal mudflats (Hope et al., 2019;Pinckney, 2018). MPB PP largely supports benthic and pelagic secondary production in shallow water systems of the land-ocean continuum (Daehnick et al., 1992;