Research > Collaborative linkages program > State linkage projects > project description Research: Collaborative linkages State linkage project: Providing Marine Algal Taxonomic Expertise to Coastal Ecosystem and Biodiversity in Western Australia, a Core CSIRO Work Priority Area, and Preparation of an Interactive Key to the Seagrass Epiphytes Introduction Benthic plants (algae and seagrasses) are a dominant component of most inshore marine ecosystems in Western Australia, and several CSIRO projects presently underway incorporate macroalgal surveys to establish baseline community structure. One of SRFME’s core research projects, Coastal Ecosystems and Biodiversity in Western Australia has as a primary objective the ‘provision of representative baseline assessments’. It is imperative that these surveys be based on reliable and consistent taxonomic information if they are to provide meaningful habitat and community characterizations. This project uses the taxonomic expertise of John Huisman to ensure consistent and accurate identifications of the macroalgae. In addition to the benefits to CSIRO core research, this project will contribute to ‘Florabase’, a CALM endeavour to document information regarding Western Australia’s plant life. This information is web-based and, in part, made available to the public. Aims/Objectives This project has several objectives. The first is to provide taxonomic expertise to SRFME core research projects, the results of which will enhance our knowledge of Western Australia’s marine flora and will be used to provide information to establish and update CALM’s ‘Florabase’, the web-based repository of information pertaining to Western Australia’s plants. The second objective is to construct an interactive key to the algal epiphytes occurring on seagrasses. This key will use the program LUCID and will be an extremely valuable resource for monitoring the health of Western Australia’s seagrasses, as epiphyte composition and load is regarded as a key indicator of ecosystem health. Results This project is still in its infancy, work having begun in mid January 2005 and then only at 20% time (one day per week). Nevertheless, we have made significant progress and the backlog of unidentified/tentatively identified specimens has been cleared, most being named to species level. These names have been incorporated into the ‘Coastal Ecosystem’ project. Many of the specimens represent range extensions for the species and are therefore of value in establishing accurate distributions. Once these specimens have been curated they will be lodged with the WA Herbarium and their details entered into Florabase. As a result of this work, the extremely rare red alga Gelidiella ramellosa (Kützing) Feldmann & Hamel has been recognized in the Perth specimens. This species was originally described from collections made over 150 years ago from Western Australia (Kützing 1843) and has not been found in the region since that time (Womersley 1994). Materials have been sent to Dr Wilson Freshwater (University of North Carolina) for DNA sequence analyses and a collaborative paper is being prepared. Dr Freshwater is the acknowledged expert in the Gelidiales, the red algal order to which Gelidiella belongs. With regard to the ‘Seagrass Epiphyte Interactive Key’, John Huisman attended the CALM workshop on using LUCID for developing interactive keys and purchased the updated version of the software, which is now usable on the web. A list of known epiphytes has been compiled (over 200 species) and building of the key has commenced. In addition, images of seagrass epiphytes are being compiled; most of these are being newly acquired but several will be sourced from John Huisman’s existing collection. Summary Despite having only recently begun, this project has made significant advances, having already added new distributional data and rediscovered an extremely rare species. In addition, substantial progress has been made toward building the interactive key to the seagrass epiphytes. References Kützing, F. T. 1843. Phycologia generalis. Leipzig. Womersley, H. B. S. 1994. The Marine Benthic Flora of Southern Australia. Part IIIA. Australian Biological Resources Survey, Canberra. No conferences or presentations as yet. No publications as yet. A manuscript is being prepared reporting the finding of Gelidiella ramellosa. Authors John Huisman, Murdoch University Dr Russ Babcock, Project Manager, CSIRO Marine Research Dr Julia Phillips, Marine Ecologist, CSIRO Marine Research Dr Chris Simpson, Project Manager, Department of Conservation and Land Management Neville Marchant, WA Herbarium, Department of Conservation and Land Management [collaborative linkages program]

 

CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research | Department of Premier and Cabinet| Department of Conservation & Land Management | Department of Fisheries WA| Department of Environment | Department of Industry & Resources SRFME is a joint venture between the Western Australian State Government and CSIRO