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Nitrogen fixation rates in algal turf communities of a degraded versus less degraded coral reef

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Abstract

Algal turf communities are ubiquitous on coral reefs in the Caribbean and are often dominated by N2-fixing cyanobacteria. However, it is largely unknown (1) how much N2 is actually fixed by turf communities and (2) which factors affect their N2 fixation rates. Therefore, we compared N2 fixation activity by turf communities at different depths and during day and night-time on a degraded versus a less degraded coral reef site on the island of Curaçao. N2 fixation rates measured with the acetylene reduction assay were slightly higher in shallow (5–10-m depth) than in deep turf communities (30-m depth), and N2 fixation rates during the daytime significantly exceeded those during the night. N2 fixation rates by the turf communities did not differ between the degraded and less degraded reef. Both our study and a literature survey of earlier studies indicated that turf communities tend to have lower N2 fixation rates than cyanobacterial mats. However, at least in our study area, turf communities were more abundant than cyanobacterial mats. Our results therefore suggest that turf communities play an important role in the nitrogen cycle of coral reefs. N2 fixation by turfs may contribute to an undesirable positive feedback that promotes the proliferation of algal turf communities while accelerating coral reef degradation.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the reviewers for their helpful comments on the manuscript. We are most grateful to Hannah Brocke of the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology for her help with the field incubations, Verena Brauer and Pieter Slot of the University of Amsterdam for their help with the gas chromatographic analyses, and Jan van Ooijen of the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) for the nutrient analyses. This research was funded by the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (P7/2007–2013) under Grant Agreement No. 244161 (Future of Reefs in a Changing Environment), and the Schure-Beijerinck-Pop** Fund (SBK/JK 2011-31 KNAW, the Netherlands).

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  1. Anjani E. Ganase

    Present address: Coral Reef Ecosystems Lab, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Aquatic Microbiology, Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, PO Box 94248, 1090 GE, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Joost den Haan, Petra M. Visser, Anjani E. Ganase, Lucas J. Stal, Mark J. A. Vermeij & Jef Huisman

  2. Department of Microbiology, Radboud University, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525 AJ, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Elfi E. Gooren

  3. Department of Marine Microbiology, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), PO Box 140, 4400 AC, Yerseke, The Netherlands

    Lucas J. Stal

  4. Department of Biological Oceanography, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), PO Box 59, 1790 AB, Den Burg, The Netherlands

    Fleur C. van Duyl

  5. Carmabi Foundation, Piscaderabaai z/n, PO Box 2090, Willemstad, Curaçao

    Mark J. A. Vermeij

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den Haan, J., Visser, P.M., Ganase, A.E. et al. Nitrogen fixation rates in algal turf communities of a degraded versus less degraded coral reef. Coral Reefs 33, 1003–1015 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-014-1207-5

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