Carbon turnover rates and community biomass of three shallow rocky reef habitats in the southeastern Mediterranean

The southeastern Mediterranean reefs may be classified into three habitat types: (1) 'algal forests', dominated by the native canopy forming Cystoseira rayssiae; (2) 'turf', low lying short algae; and (3) 'tropical shrubs', dominated by the tropical alien Galaxaura rugosa that forms algal shrubs. During May 2016 we conducted in-situ benthic incubations over six 0.125 m2 plots of reef per each habitat type, to measure primary production, respiration, calcification and CaCO3- dissolution. For that, dissolved organic carbon (DIC), total alkalinity (TA) and dissolved oxygen (DO) were measured. We collected the community from the incubation plots and analysed biomass (wet weight, WW; dry weight, DW; and ash-free dry weight, AFDW) for the various taxa.