Centre of Marine Sciences (CCMAR/CIMAR LA), Campus de Gambelas, Universidade do Algarve, 8005-139, Faro, Portugal.
Grupo en Biodiversidad y Conservación (IU-ECOAQUA), Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Telde, Spain.
Nat Commun. 2024 Sep 27;15(1):8282. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-52697-5.
Current evidence suggests that macroalgal-dominated habitats are important contributors to the oceanic carbon cycle, though the role of those formed by calcifiers remains controversial. Globally distributed coralline algal beds, built by pink coloured rhodoliths and maerl, cover extensive coastal shelf areas of the planet, but scarce information on their productivity, net carbon flux dynamics and carbonate deposits hampers assessing their contribution to the overall oceanic carbon cycle. Here, our data, covering large bathymetrical (2-51 m) and geographical ranges (53°N-27°S), show that coralline algal beds are highly productive habitats that can express substantial carbon uptake rates (28-1347 g C m day), which vary in function of light availability and species composition and exceed reported estimates for other major macroalgal habitats. This high productivity, together with their substantial carbonate deposits (0.4-38 kilotons), renders coralline algal beds as highly relevant contributors to the present and future oceanic carbon cycle.
目前的证据表明，大型藻类占主导地位的生境是海洋碳循环的重要贡献者，尽管造礁生物形成的生境的作用仍存在争议。全球分布的珊瑚藻床由粉红色的石珊瑚和马尾藻建造，覆盖了地球广阔的沿海大陆架区域，但关于其生产力、净碳通量动态和碳酸盐沉积的稀缺信息，阻碍了评估它们对整体海洋碳循环的贡献。在这里，我们的数据涵盖了大的水深（2-51 米）和地理范围（53°N-27°S），表明珊瑚藻床是高生产力的生境，可以表达出大量的碳吸收速率（28-1347 克碳/米/天），这些速率受光可用性和物种组成的影响而变化，超过了其他主要大型藻类生境的报告估计。这种高生产力，加上它们大量的碳酸盐沉积（0.4-38 千吨），使得珊瑚藻床成为当前和未来海洋碳循环的重要贡献者。
