. The ecology of coral reefs : results of a Workshop on Coral Reef Ecology held by the American Society of Zoologists, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, December 1983 . (X) annual mean - individual reef ⢠seasonal mean-all reefs 200 400 600 800 1000 TOTAL ALGAL BIOMASS IAREA x SAR. x Igm dry/m2 projected) Figure reef: Gross primary productivity as a function of total algal biomass and monthly solar radiation for all reefs reveals a strong seasonal pattern in productivity corresponding to these seasonal differences in light intensity (fig. 5). Although the seasonal decrease in primar
. The ecology of coral reefs : results of a Workshop on Coral Reef Ecology held by the American Society of Zoologists, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, December 1983 . (X) annual mean - individual reef ⢠seasonal mean-all reefs 200 400 600 800 1000 TOTAL ALGAL BIOMASS IAREA x SAR. x Igm dry/m2 projected) Figure reef: Gross primary productivity as a function of total algal biomass and monthly solar radiation for all reefs reveals a strong seasonal pattern in productivity corresponding to these seasonal differences in light intensity (fig. 5). Although the seasonal decrease in primary productivity roughly corresponds to a 40% reduction in light during that period, the relationship is not exact, since the GPP in October is reduced to only 30% of that value in May. A better correspondence exists between the seasonality of primary production and the combination of algal biomass and solar radiation. Loss of light in autumn is exacerbated on St. Croix by a higher frequency of rainfall and cloudiness. Thus, incoming light in October and November is considerably below that of December and January (fig. 6). The GPP data, when plotted directly against total algal biomass (per projected m^, fig. 7), suggests that a weak relationship between productivity and total biomass exists on these reefs (note that this is not surface biomass alone, but includes the effects of SAR and percent cover of algae). Also, the 181
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