Abstract
The plant benthic communities and the bottom microflora are responsible for more than half the total autotrophic production and of heterotrophic metabolism in coral-reef ecosystems. The plant communities include the microphytobenthos of soft sediments, the periphytonic overgrowths of the solid surfaces and rubble, the thallophyte seaweeds and the seagrasses. The bottom microbial associations are represented by bacteria in soft sediments (soft sands), by bacteria in the detrital sediments, by periphytonic bacteria and by bacteria symbiotic to benthic animals (sponges). The relative importance of each of the components listed varies in different reef zones.
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© 1995 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Sorokin, Y.I. (1995). Benthic Microflora, Periphyton and Plant Associations. In: Coral Reef Ecology. Ecological Studies, vol 102. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-80046-7_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-80046-7_5
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-60532-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-80046-7
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