Respiration in coastal benthic communities

Abstract This chapter reviews coastal benthic communities with the aim of deriving a global estimate for respiration in these ecosystems. Reefs, mangroves, salt marshes, macroalgae, sea grasses, and unvegetated sediments dominate respiration in the coastal ocean. Estimates of coastal benthic respiration are not well constrained but converge on about 620 Tmol C/a. In coastal benthic ecosystems, autotrophs and multicellular heterotrophs contribute significantly to, and in some systems even dominate respiration unlike in most other oceanic ecosystems in which bacteria dominate respiration.