Shining light on benthic macroalgae: mechanisms of complementarity in layered macroalgal assemblages

Phototrophs underpin most ecosystem processes, but to do this they need sufficient light. This critical resource, however, is compromised along many marine shores by increased loads of sediments and nutrients from degraded inland habitats. Increased attenuation of total irradiance within coastal water columns due to turbidity is known to reduce species' depth limits and affect the taxonomic structure and architecture of algal-dominated assemblages, but virtually no attention has been paid to the potential for changes in spectral quality of light energy to impact production dynamics. Pioneering studies over 70 years ago showed how different pigmentation of red, green and brown algae affected absorption spectra, action spectra, and photosynthetic efficiency across the PAR (photosynthetically active radiation) spectrum. Little of this, however, has found its way into ecological syntheses of the impacts of optically active contaminants on coastal macroalgal communities. Here we test the abi...

光能自养生物（Phototrophs）支撑着绝大多数生态系统过程，但要完成这些功能，它们需要充足的光照。然而，这一关键资源在众多滨海沿岸区域正受到干扰，其诱因是退化内陆生境输入的沉积物与营养盐负荷不断增加。已知因浊度升高导致的近海水柱总辐照度衰减加剧，会压缩物种的分布深度下限，并改变藻类主导生物群落的分类组成与结构构型，但目前几乎尚无研究关注光能光谱质量变化对群落生产力动态的潜在影响。70余年前的开创性研究便已证实，红藻、绿藻与褐藻的色素组成差异，会影响其在光合有效辐射（photosynthetically active radiation，PAR）波段内的吸收光谱、作用光谱与光合效率。然而，这类研究成果几乎未被纳入光学活性污染物对滨海大型藻类群落影响的生态学综合研究框架中。在此，我们将测试非生物（abiotic，原文未完整给出）相关的……