Brown algae (Phaeophyceae) are remarkable organisms that, independently of parallel developments in green algae and in land plants, evolved multicellularity and organs that look like their “counterparts” in land plants and are accordingly termed rhizoids (resembling root), cauloids (resembling stem), and phylloids (resembling leaf). Similar to trees on land, large brown algae (kelp) can form la...

we tested the hypothesis that light reflected from dense growths of macroalgae [i.e., a low reflectance (lr) surface] vs heavily grazed surfaces [i.e., a high reflectance (hr) surface] has no effect on the photophysiology of scleractinian corals on the shallow (3-m depth) back reef of Moorea, french polynesia. underwater light was measured using a cosine-corrected sensor that detected photosynt...