Abstract
This month's cover image shows a SCUBA?diving PhD student assessing metabolic and biogeochemical functions of a coral reef community in the central Red Sea, Saudi Arabia. These coral communities flourish in some of the most oligotrophic waters of the tropics. The key to their high productivity is an efficient cycling of energy and nutrients within the reef ecosystem. However, measuring actual rates of productivity, calcification, along with organic matter and nutrient cycling in situ has proven difficult because of logistical constraints and the structural complexity of many benthic habitats.
In their article, Roth et al. present a cost?effective incubation chamber system that can be used over both simple and structurally complex benthic communities. The authors provide detailed construction plans, explain how photogrammetry tools enable accurate normalization of community?fluxes, and guide through data analysis and interpretation. As a standardised approach, the authors demonstrate the applicability of the chambers on a range of benthic habitats, including rocky?shores with algae, corals, seagrass meadows, and carbonate sands. This tool aids in mitigating the paucity of observational and manipulative studies that can be performed in situ in native habitats, producing widely applicable and realistic assessments on the community level.
Photo credit: © Holger Anlauf