Silica and nitrogen analyses from incubation experiments conducted using seagrass cores from 1m depth in Grand Bay in 2017.

We report an assessment for determining the contribution by diatoms to community productivity and respiration within a coastal benthic ecosystem with multiple autotrophs. During summer, cores of open sediment and seagrass habitat were collected from a lagoon within the Northern Gulf of Mexico. Cores were maintained in an outdoor mesocosm. Germanic acid, an inhibitor of diatom cell division, was added to half the cores and quantification of production and respiration was done. Inhibition of diatoms reduced benthic productivity within the seagrass habitat. 71 to 83% of production was attributable to diatoms and this contribution moved the benthic system into net autotrophy. Diatom contribution to production in other habitat-community components was more variable (varied from 0 to 86%). Findings underscore the ecological importance of diatoms as producers in seagrass beds, the role of seagrasses in maintaining productivity, and infer that diatoms may have similar contributions in other aquatic vegetated habitats.本研究报道了一项评估，旨在明确硅藻(diatoms)在包含多种自养生物的沿海底栖生态系统中，对群落生产力与呼吸作用的贡献。夏季期间，研究人员从墨西哥湾北部的一处潟湖采集了裸露沉积物与海草生境的沉积物柱状样。这些柱状样被置于室外中型实验生态系(mesocosm)中培养。研究人员向半数柱状样中添加了可抑制硅藻细胞分裂的锗酸(germanic acid)，并对生产力与呼吸作用进行了定量测定。抑制硅藻的活动会降低海草生境中的底栖生产力。海草生境中71%~83%的生产力来源于硅藻，这一贡献使底栖生态系统转变为净自养状态。而在其他生境-群落组分中，硅藻对生产力的贡献差异更大，范围为0%~86%。本研究结果凸显了硅藻作为海草床初级生产者的生态重要性，以及海草在维持群落生产力中的作用，并推断硅藻在其他水生植被生境中可能也具有类似的生产力贡献。