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Stressed, but not defenceless: no obvious influence of irradiation levels on antifeeding and antifouling defences of tropical macroalgae

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Abstract

The production of defence metabolites is assumed to be costly in metabolic terms. If this holds true, low-light stress should reduce the ability of seaweeds to defend themselves chemically against herbivory and fouling. We investigated the effect of energy limitation on the defensive status of seaweeds by assessing their attractiveness to mesograzers and their activity against a bivalve macrofouler in comparison with non-stressed conspecifics. The macroalgae Codium decorticatum (Woodw.) M. Howe, Osmundaria obtusiloba (C. Agardh) R. E. Norris, Pterocladiella capillacea (S. G. Gmel.) Santel. and Hommer., Sargassum vulgare C. Agardh and Stypopodium zonale (Lamour.) Papenf. collected at the southeastern Brazilian coast were exposed to six levels of irradiation (between 1 and 180 μmol photons m−2 s−1) for 10–14 days. After this period, algae from all treatment levels were: (a) processed as artificial food and offered to an amphipod community dominated by Elasmopus brasiliensis Dana and (b) extracted to test for differences in settlement rates of the fouling mussel Perna perna L. on filter paper loaded with the crude extracts. Generally, photosynthesis rates and growth were reduced under low light conditions. Attractiveness to herbivores and macrofoulers, however, was insensitive to energy limitation. We discuss possible explanations for the observed absence of a relationship between light availability and algal defence including the change in nutritional value of the algal tissue, the allocation of resources towards defence instead of growth and the absence of costs for defence.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the Mercator Foundation for funding this study. Moreover, we thank Florian Weinberger for advice on the manuscript and two anonymous reviewers as well as the editor for substantially helpful comments and critique. Further, we recognize valuable help in field and laboratory work: Camille Alves, Glaucia Ank, Bruno Antunes, Éverson Bianco, Juliana Ferrari, Suzana Guimarães, Ricardo Rogers, Rodrigo Santos, Camilla Souza, Daniela Sudatti, Frauke Symanowski, Phillipe Vieira and Eduardo Xavier for great support. The experiments comply with the current laws of Brazil, where they were performed.

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  1. Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of Kiel (IFM-GEOMAR), Düsternbrooker Weg 20, 24105, Kiel, Germany

    Yasmin Shirin Appelhans, Mark Lenz & Martin Wahl

  2. Departamento de Biologia Marinha, Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF), Caixa Postal 100644, CEP 24001-970, Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Heloisa Elias Medeiros, Bernardo Antonio Perez da Gama & Renato Crespo Pereira

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  1. Yasmin Shirin Appelhans
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Correspondence to Yasmin Shirin Appelhans.

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Communicated by T. Reusch.

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Appelhans, Y.S., Lenz, M., Medeiros, H.E. et al. Stressed, but not defenceless: no obvious influence of irradiation levels on antifeeding and antifouling defences of tropical macroalgae. Mar Biol 157, 1151–1159 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-010-1396-6

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