PRIMARY PRODUCTIVITY OF THE BOT RIVER ESTUARY, SOUTH AFRICA

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The primary production of the Bot River estuary, a large closed estuary on the south-western coast of South Africa has been estimated at 11 059 t dry mass y−1. The main contributions to this value come from the submerged aquatic macrophytes (7 987 t dry mass y−1 or 72% of total calculated production), reeds (1 503 t dry mass y−1 or 14%), benthic diatoms (787 t dry mass y−1 or 7%) and phytoplankton (782 t dry mass y-1 or 7%). These four categories are believed to contribute over 90% of the primary production during periods of stability when the estuary is closed and full. Much of this production is not directly utilized by herbivores and forms the basis of a bacterial system producing very fine, organically rich material deposited on the estuary bed. Primary production is affected by mouth opening in a number of different ways including changes in volume of water, available surface area for attachment of macrophytes, and loss of macrophytes which are stranded or washed out to sea.

This publication has 29 references indexed in Scilit: