Light Limitation within Southern New Zealand Kelp Forest Communities

摘要: Light is the fundamental driver of primary productivity in marine environment. Reduced light availability has potential to alter distribution, community composition, and key benthic producers, potentially reducing habitat energy provision coastal food webs. We compared underwater environment macroalgal dominated shallow subtidal rocky reef habitats on a coastline modified by human activities with forested catchments. Key metrics describing photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) were determined over 295 days related depth standing biomass patterns, which recorded seasonally. attenuation was more than twice as high zones along coast. Macroalgal 2–5 times greater within sites, even water (2m) significant difference observed. Long-term dose provided best explanation for differences observed between coasts, study period differing 60 90 mol photons m−2 at 2 10 metres, respectively. Higher coast driven presence larger individuals rather species diversity or density. This suggests that commonly used such density are not sensitive direct measures when detecting effects limitation communities.