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Relative Effects Of Nutrient Enrichment And Grazing On Epiphyton-Macrophyte (Zostera Marina L.) Dynamics, Hilary A. Neckles

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Dissolved nutrient concentrations and invertebrate grazing activity regulate epiphytic biomass. Because epiphyton may limit light and carbon at leaf surfaces and the consequent productivity of submerged macrophytes, factors which influence epiphytic biomass may indirectly affect macrophyte abundance. I measured the simultaneous effects of water column nutrients (ambient or 3x ambient concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus) and grazing (presence or absence of epifaunal community) on epiphyton and macrophytes seasonally in eelgrass (Zostera marina L.) microcosms on lower Chesapeake Bay. Grazing was more important than nutrients in controlling accrual of total epiphytic biomass, although effects on epiphytic components varied; numbers of diatoms …