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Effect of Encrusting Bryozoans on the Physiology of Their Algal Substratum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

Jorge Muñoz ,
Juan M. Cancino  and
MarÍa X. Molina
Jorge Muñoz
Affiliation:
Departamento de Ciencias del Mar, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Casilla 127 Talcahuano, Chile
Juan M. Cancino
Affiliation:
Departamento de Ecologia, Facultad de Ciencias Biólogicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Casilla 114-D Santiago, Chile
MarÍa X. Molina
Affiliation:
Departamento de Ciencias Ecologicas, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Casilla 653 Santiago, Chile
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Extract

Traditionally, colonies of encrusting epiphytic bryozoans have been regarded as biotic factors reducing photosynthetic performance in benthic algae. In this study we determined under laboratory conditions the effects of Membranipora tuberculata on the photosynthetic efficiency of the rhodophyte Gelidium rex.

Encrusting bryozoans reduce to 44% the incident light reaching the algal thallus. However, concentrations of chlorophyll a and other accessory pigments are significantly higher in encrusted than in non-encrusted thalli. Consequently, photosynthetic efficiency is almost identical in both types of thalli. Although non-encrusted thalli showed a higher photosynthetic V due to higher levels of light reaching the algae, encrusted thalli exhibited a compensatory effect at low photon flux density and reached a similar P value. The detrimental effect of M. tuberculata on photosynthesis could be partially compensated by CO released from bryozoan cells, as G. rex preferred CO over HCO3 as a source of photosynthetic inorganic carbon. These results suggest that physiological interaction between bryozoans and algae, involving the interchange of metabolic substances, are likely to be important.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 71 , Issue 4 , November 1991 , pp. 877 - 882
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1991

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References

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