A "bottom-up" approach to estimate taxon-specific primary production rates on coral reefs

This thesis uses a bottom-up approach to estimate the contribution of different types of primary producers to total primary production of a coral reef. Photographic 3-D mapping was employed to build high resolution 3-D image reconstructions of the benthic ecosystem. Primary producers and their surface area were determined in the 3-D reconstruction using machine learning tools. Chamber measurements of photosynthetic rates of the major sessile components of the reef benthic community were obtained as a function of irradiance. The metabolic rates of reef community members were combined with their surface areas (obtained from the 3-D benthic maps) and a daylight irradiance model to estimate the total reef metabolism and partition total reef productivity among community members. Coral sites were estimated to have gross primary production rates ranging from 142-235 mol O2/m2/day. Individual taxa contribution to total productivity was found to be related to taxa 3-D benthic cover contribution.