Light-use efficiency defines the ability of primary producers to convert sunlight energy to primary production and is computed as the ratio between the gross primary production and the intercepted photosynthetic active radiation. While this measure has been applied broadly within terrestrial ecology to investigate habitat resource-use efficiency, it remains underused within the aquatic realm. This report provides a conceptual framework to compute hourly and daily light-use efficiency using underwater O₂ eddy covariance, a recent technological development that produces habitat-scale rates of primary production under unaltered in situ conditions. The analysis, tested on two benthic flux datasets, documents that hourly light-use efficiency may approach the theoretical limit of 0.125 O₂ per photon under low-light conditions, but it decreases rapidly towards the middle of the day and is typically 10-fold lower on a 24 h basis. Overall, light-use efficiency provides a useful measure of habitat functioning and facilitates site comparison in time and space.

中文翻译：

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技术说明：利用水下O ₂涡动协方差估算底栖生境的光利用效率

光利用效率定义了初级生产者将阳光能量转换为初级生产的能力，并以初级生产总值与截获的光合作用活性辐射之间的比率计算。尽管该措施已广泛应用于陆地生态系统以调查栖息地资源的利用效率，但在水生领域仍未得到充分利用。本报告提供了一个概念框架，可使用水下O ₂涡动协方差来计算每小时和每日的光利用效率，这是一项最新技术，可在原地不改变的条件下产生栖息地规模的初级生产速率。在两个底流通量数据集上进行的分析表明，每小时的光利用效率可能接近理论极限0.125  O在弱光条件下，每个光子₂个光子，但它会在一天中间迅速减少，通常在24小时内降低10倍。总体而言，光的利用效率提供了一种有效的栖息地功能度量标准，并有助于在时间和空间上进行场地比较。