High prevalence of diffusive uptake of CO2 by macroalgae in a temperate subtidal ecosystem

Productivity of most macroalgae is not currently considered limited by dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), as the majority of species have CO2-concentrating mechanisms (CCM) allowing the active uptake of DIC. The alternative, diffusive uptake of CO2 (non-CCM), is considered rare (0-9% of all macroalgal cover in a given ecosystem), and identifying species without CCMs is important in understanding factors controlling inorganic carbon use by eukaryotic algae. CCM activity has higher energetic requirements than diffusive CO2 uptake, therefore when light is low, CCM activity is reduced in favour of diffusive CO2 uptake. We hypothesized that the proportional cover of macroalgae without CCMs (red and green macroalgae) would be low (<10%) across four sites in Tasmania, southern Australia at two depths (4-5 and 12-14 m); the proportion of species lacking CCMs would increase with decreasing depth; the δ(13)C values of macroalgae with CCMs would be more depleted with depth. We found the proportion of non-CCM species ranged from 0 to 90% and included species from all three macroalgal phyla: 81% of red (59 species), 14% of brown (three species) and 29% of green macroalgae (two species). The proportion of non-CCM species increased with depth at three of four sites. 35% of species tested had significantly depleted δ(13)C values at deeper depths. Non-CCM macroalgae are more abundant in some temperate reefs than previously thought. If ocean acidification benefits non-CCM species, the ramifications for subtidal macroalgal assemblages could be larger than previously considered.