Contribution of Receptacles from the Fucoid Ascophyllum nodosum to the Detrital Pool of a North Temperate Estuary

Abstract

The fucoid brown algaAscophyllum nodosum (L.) Le Jolis annually produces lateral reproductive branches (i.e. receptacles) approximately equal in weight to its vegetative thalli. The receptacles are shed within a single month during the spring. The estimated total input of receptacles to the detrital pool within the Great Bay Estuary System of New Hampshire-Maine, U.S.A., is 445 g dry wt·m−2·yr−1. Decomposition rates were rapid with only 50% or less of the original litter remaining after 50 days. Nitrogen and phosphorus flux from the litter bags varied with environmental conditions and habitats.