Decomposition and significance of seagrass leaf litter (Cymodocea nodosa) for the microbial food web in coastal waters (Gulf of Trieste, northern Adriatic Sea)

Abstract

The soluble fraction leaching out of the material in the early phase of decay is rapidly used by both the free-living and the attached bacterial community, thus supporting a microbial food web up to the protozoan level. Most of the residual fraction of organic carbon of leaf debris is released more slowly into the water after hydrolysis by attached microbes thus indicating a loose hydrolysis-uptake coupling. Leaf debris of C. nodosa is suggested to have a small but significant impact on microbial secondary production in the study area largely via its leachates. -from Authors