Volumen 46 - Número 1: 73-77 | 2011
Research Note

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Metabolic rates and primary productivity of the marine macroalgae Dictyopteris delicatula in Taganga Bay, Colombian Caribbean

Juan Diego Gaitán-Espitia^1,2*

¹Instituto de Ecología y Evolución, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Austral de Chile, Casilla 567 Valdivia, Chile
²Centro de Investigaciones en Zoología y Ecología Marina (CIZEM), Santa Marta, Colombia

*This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Metabolic rates and photosynthetic performance of Dictyopteris delicatula were measured in the south of Taganga Bay and on Inca-Inca beach, Colombia, during September and November 2007, as part of a monitoring program of water quality and pollution associated with the stormwater system of the city of Santa Marta. Concentrations of chlorophyll-a of D. delicatula did not show significant differences between both areas but the average rates of net primary productivity and respiration differed significantly, likely due to the effect of the nutrient loadings from the stormwater outlet in Taganga Bay, altering the physiological processes of the macroalgal community.

Key words: Phaeophyta, photosynthesis, respiration, metabolism, Colombia

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