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List of Blidingia samples collected and genetically assessed in 2014-2017 in northern Germany. Additionally, the herbarium (BRM) specimens included in this study are listed.
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In temperate and subarctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere, green algae of the genus Blidingia are a substantial and environment-shaping component of the upper and mid-supralittoral zones. However, taxonomic knowledge on these important green algae is still sparse. In the present study, the molecular diversity and distribution of Blidingia speci...
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... Holstein's coastline is of limited length, but is struc- turally very diverse, including a south-east section of the fully marine North Sea and a south-west section of the brackish Bal- tic Sea, as well as various estuaries and lagoons. The area also includes the North Sea island of Helgoland, the focus of phyco- logical research in the mid-19th century (Reinke, 1889) and among the best-studied seaweed habitats in Europe (Bartsch & Kuhlenkamp, 2000). Long-term observations of the benthic flora of Helgoland have shown that the establishment of artificial substrata resulted in an increased abundance of Blidingia spp. (Bartsch & Kuhlenkamp, 2000). Subsequent to C.W. Nägeli collecting the holotype of B. ...Context 2
... littoral and supralittoral zones were checked for macroalgal growth with a focus on freshwater inflows (e.g., drainages, river inflows, beach showers). Several sites were re-visited in the years 2018 and 2019, to verify the presence of populations and obtain material for cultivation (Table 1). Altogether, Blidingia spp. ...Context 4
... were collected, placed into sealed plastic bags, and stored on ice until further processing in the lab. Most samples were preserved as herbarium vouchers (see Table 1) and lodged in the Natural History Museum Denmark, Copenhagen (C). A subsample was divided, with part of it stored at 4 C or −20 C for subsequent morphological observation and part of it stored in a microreaction tube at −80 C for genomic DNA extraction. ...Context 5
... addition to the field collected samples, herbarium specimens in the Herbarium of the Helgoland Biological Station of the Alfred Wegener Institute (BRM) were included in our analyses (barcode numbers: BRM007967 and BRM008079; see also Table 1). Several additional herbarium specimens were investigated, including the type specimen of B. minima (Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, Netherlands [L], barcode L 0054691; suppl. ...Context 6
... Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.A.), and a multiple sequence alignment was constructed for each gene region using MAFFT v.7.402 (Katoh & al., 2002) (for Alignments, see supplementary Appendices S1 and S2). Sequences obtained in this study are publicly available in GenBank (for accession numbers, see Table 1). ...Context 7
... herbarium specimens from Helgoland (Table 1) showed no agreement between their previous identification based on morphological traits and their molecular identification by DNA barcoding. Within our phylogenetic analysis of the tufA gene, voucher BRM008079 (morphologically identified as Blidingia minima, GenBank accession no.: MT076212) clustered within the clade representing Blidingia sp. 2, and voucher BRM007967 (morphological identity B. marginata, GenBank accession no.: MT076211) was assigned to the clade of Ulva intestinalis (Fig. 2). ...Context 8
... marginata is the most common Blidingia species within the study area and has the widest distribution. It is abundant on Baltic Sea and Wadden Sea coasts and at Helgoland (Table 1). This species can be found in remote as well as anthropogenically strongly impacted habitats (see also Steinhagen & al., 2019a,b) and inhabits fully marine and brackish water ecosystems. ...Context 9
... lengths are proportional to sequence divergence. # symbol marks herbarium samples (see also Table 1). ...Context 10
... sp. 1 Habitat and distribution. -Specimens of this species were also found on Baltic Sea and Wadden Sea coasts and on Helgoland (Table 1). However, dense, turf-like populations of Blidingia sp. 1 were not as frequent and abundant as those of B. marginata, and they were more clearly restricted to the upper supralittoral zone. ...Similar publications
Marine macroalgae are foundation species that play a critical ecological role in coastal communities as primary producers. The macroalgal genus Ulva is vital in intertidal communities, serving as a food source and shelter for organisms, but these species also form environment-damaging nuisance blooms. This project aimed to demonstrate the utility o...
Citations
... Today aquaculture is one of the fastest expanding sectors for cultivation of new food species [10]. Recently, green macroalgae of the genus Ulva attracted interest from the growing aquaculture industry [11][12][13][14][15][16] due to their fast growth and high nutrition value [13,[17][18][19][20]. However, these traits also make them prone to introduction to new ecosystems by human dispersal [21][22][23], and combined with the fact that some opportunistic species can form green tides under suitable nutrient conditions [24][25][26][27], correct species identification and phylogeographic assessments of this taxonomic group is crucial before development as aquaculture species. ...
... [36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45]). New species are being constantly described [13,14,25,[46][47][48][49] and allegedly well-defined species are revised [27,[49][50][51][52][53][54][55]. A striking example is the genus Ulva (e.g. ...
... The increasing use of molecular techniques, such as DNA barcoding, has led to significant taxonomic revisions, especially within the orders Ulvales and Ulotrichales [14,27,49,50,[52][53][54]56]. However, previous surveys using molecular methods for species identification in the Atlantic-Baltic Sea region are relatively scarce and cover only small areas (e.g. ...
Correct species identification is fundamental for assessment and understanding of biodiversity. Erroneous species
identification may impede conservation management and may delay detection of invasive species. The ubiqui-
tous green algal genus Ulva is known for its wide environmental tolerance, plastic morphology, occurrence of
cryptic species and ambiguous species concepts that hinder clear identification. We used molecular monitoring to
assess species diversity and distribution of Ulva along the full Atlantic-Baltic Sea salinity gradient (> 10,000 km).
Ulva specimens were collected from Denmark, Finland, Germany, Norway, and Sweden. DNA barcoding analysis
of the tufA gene revealed 20 genetic entities in total, of which 11 could be identified to species level
(U. californica, U. flexuosa, U. torta, U. linza, U. prolifera, U. fenestrata, U. australis, U. intestinalis, U. compressa,
U. gigantea, U. lacinulata). Nine entities (Ulva sp. 1–9; [Ulva capillata]) yielded novel sequence reads that
belonged to either unidentified species, species complexes, or singletons. At least 3 of the discovered species
(U. australis, U. californica, U. gigantea) are considered non-native and potentially invasive. Furthermore,
considerable differences between the observed and the historically estimated species distributions were found.
The highest diversity was recorded in the Atlantic and Skagerrak region whereas only two entities of taxo-
nomically accepted species where found north-east the Blekinge coast. Our study shows that the species diversity
of Ulva in the study area is diverging from previous reports, and that molecular methods are imperative for
species identification in this morphologically plastic genus. Furthermore, the presence of non-native species
indicates a necessity for further fine-scale monitoring in specific areas to e.g. mitigate formation of green tides.
... It is highly probable that these specimens are misidentifications of tubular Ulva spp. as Blidingia spp. are known to point out the transition between marine and terrestrial zone (Steinhagen et al. 2021). ...
Maerl beds are unique marine habitats hosting a great diversity of organisms while macroalgae are a major component of this diversity. The bay of Brest is one of the most studied coastal ecosystems in the world; in addition, it has a significant background concerning historical seaweeds checklists associated to maerl beds. However, no recent work aimed at compiling and completing these data. In this study, a total of 7 subtidal and 3 intertidal maerl beds have been surveyed between 2020 and 2022. These data complete 4 previous inventories, giving the most accurate description of seaweeds colonizing maerl beds in the bay of Brest. The total number of macroalgal species reaches 170 among which 127 are Rhodophyta, 22 Phaeophyceae, and 21 Ulvophyceae, with 51 additions to the French and 19 additions to the European maerl beds checklist. A comparison with other maerl beds of the northeastern Atlantic coasts is compiled. It appears that the maerl beds from the bay of Brest are the most diverse in Atlantic France and among the most diverse in Europe. A description of the stratification of maerl beds and the associated macroalgal communities is proposed. It includes maerl species, encrusting species, maerl-entangling species, erect isolated species, and free-living species. In addition, specimens of the rarely recorded Rytiphlaea tinctoria, reaching its northernmost population in the bay, a possible introduced species/relict population, are described.
... Eudesme virescens: a characteristic spring/early summer species, which may have already disappeared during the usual monitoring period in summer/ late summer Blidingia marginata: can be confused with Blindingia minima or other Blidingia species according to recent genetic analyses (225) ...
... Blidingia minima has more historical records compared to B. marginata; however recently performed DNA analyses (225) showed a larger distribution range for other Blindingia species and no clear allocation of samples to B. minima ...
For the distribution atlas, historical and current data of macrophyte species of the German Baltic Sea coastline were gathered, georeferenced and presented in species-specific maps. In total, data of 257 taxa from 249 references of different types (environmental monitoring, research reports, doctoral, diploma and master theses, herbarium vouchers, environmental assessments for maritime constructions, ...) were evaluated. In addition to the cartographic representation of the data, extensive taxonomic and ecological information was added, which is presented in species-specific fact sheets.
... , the taxa were identified as Blidingia minima(Nägli ex Kütz.) Kylin; see alsoSteinhagen et al. (2021) (n = 25 samples), Kornmannia leptoderma (Kjellmann) Bliding (n = 14), Ulva australis Areschoug (n = 2), Ulva compressa Linnaeus (n = 48), Ulva fenestrata Postels & Ruprecht (n = 36), Ulva intestinalis Linnaeus (n = 116), Ulva lacinulata (Kützing) Wittrock (n = 32), Ulva linza Linnaeus (n = 128), Ulva prolifera O.F. Müller (n = 7), Ulva torta (Mertens) Trevisan (n = 28), and unidentified Ulva sp. 1 (n = 1), Ulva sp. 2 (n = 15), Ulva sp. 3 (n = 2), Ulva sp. 4 (n = 4) and Ulva sp. 5 (n = 3). Distinct distribution patterns across the salinity gradient were recorded for the host species. ...
The green seaweed Ulva is a model system to study seaweed‐bacteria interactions, but the impact of environmental drivers on the dynamics of these interactions is little understood. In this study, we investigated the stability and variability of the seaweed‐associated bacteria across the Atlantic‐Baltic Sea salinity gradient. We characterised the bacterial communities of 15 Ulva sensu lato species along 2000 km coastline in a total of 481 samples. Our results demonstrate that Ulva‐associated bacterial composition was strongly structured by both salinity and host species (together explaining between 34‐91% of the variation in the abundance of the different bacterial genera). The largest shift in the bacterial consortia coincided with the horohalinicum (5‐8 PSU, known as the transition zone from freshwater to marine conditions). Low salinity communities especially contained high relative abundances of Luteolibacter, Cyanobium, Pirellula, Lacihabitans and an uncultured Spirosomaceae, whereas high salinity communities were predominantly enriched in Litorimonas, Leucothrix, Sulfurovum, Algibacter, and Dokdonia. We identified a small taxonomic core community (consisting of Paracoccus, Sulfitobacter, and an uncultured Rhodobacteraceae), which together contributed to 14% of the reads per sample, on average. Additional core taxa followed a gradient model, as more core taxa were shared between neighbouring salinity ranges than between ranges at opposite ends of the Atlantic‐Baltic Sea gradient. Our results contradict earlier statements that Ulva‐associated bacterial communities are taxonomically highly variable across individuals and largely stochastically defined. Characteristic bacterial communities associated with distinct salinity regions may therefore facilitate the host’s adaptation across the environmental gradient.
... In this paper, we present results on the classification of the current macrophytobenthos communities from the supralittoral and upper sublittoral zone of the southwestern Baltic Sea coast in Germany based on floristic criteria. Our study represents the first phytosociological study within the study area, building on a recent revision of its inventory of Ulvales species, which are a very important component of the communities studied (Steinhagen et al. 2019a(Steinhagen et al. , 2021Weinberger et al. 2018). It therefore provides a baseline required for the study of further transformations of the macrophytobenthos of the SW Baltic Sea. ...
... Specimens of the well-supported cluster representing Blidingia sp. 4 were most closely related to a sequence from New Brunswick (HQ610240) identified as Blidingia minima. However, a recent epitypification of B. minima showed that it is genetically distinct from B. minima (Steinhagen et al. 2021), so we refer to this cluster as Blidingia sp. 4 (Figure 2). Further studies would be required to determine the species affiliation of Blidingia sp. 3 and Blidingia sp. 4. ...
... Blidingietum minimae den Hartog 1959 and the community of Blidingia marginata (Gallardo and Perez-Cirera 1985). According to the molecular data presented here and elsewhere (Steinhagen et al. 2021), European communities of many different Blidingia species were probably combined under the name ass. Blidingietum minimae den Hartog 1959. ...
Supralittoral and shallow water seaweed communities are particularly exposed to impacts such as climate change and disturbance by humans. Therefore, their classification, the study of composition, and the monitoring of their structural changes are particularly important. A phytosociological survey of the supralittoral and upper sublittoral vegetation of the South West Baltic Sea revealed eight phytobenthos communities with two variants comprising 35 taxa of macrophytes (18 taxa of Chlorophyta, 13 taxa of Rhodophyta and four taxa of Phaeophyceae, Ochrophyta). Five of the eight communities were dominated by Ulvales (Ulva intestinalis, Kornmannia leptoderma, and three Blidingia species), the other three by Fucus vesiculosus. Most Fucus vesiculosus-dominated communities contained U. intestinalis and U. linza as subdominants. Only one of the communities had until now been described as an association ( Ulvetum intestinalis Feldman 1937). The syntaxonomic composition of the investigated vegetation includes both phytocenoses with the domination of green algae ( Ulvetum intestinalis Feldman 1937 and communities of Blidingia marginata, unidentified Blidingia spp. and Kornmannia leptoderma), as well as a number of communities dominated by Fucus vesiculosus. Mainly boreal Atlantic species and cosmopolitans make up the bulk of the species in these associations.
... We obtained tufA sequences for two Blidingia species. One was collected from near high tide level on a piling of the Pruth Bay dock; this specimen was identified as B. marginata (J.Agardh) P.J.L.Dangeard ex Bliding based on recent studies by Steinhagen et al. (2021). The second species was collected from Foggy Cove; it was identical to an undetermined Blidingia species from Korea (GenBank MK992087 et al.) and possibly represents another introduced species from Asia (see Cladophora opaca above). ...
Since 2011 we have been documenting seaweed diversity and abundance along a poorly studied area of the central coast of British Columbia, Canada. This first installment focuses on the Chlorophyta. To date, 42 species have been recorded, and we have obtained DNA sequences for most. Although most of these species reportedly have wide distributions along the west coast of North America, others appear to represent new northern or southern records or possible introductions, and a number have yet to be described. New southern limits are recorded for Acro-siphonia sonderi, Acrosiphonia sp., Protomonostroma undulatum, and Ulva pouliotii sp. nov., and new northern records are documented for Ulva expansa, U. stenophylla, and another undescribed species of Ulva. Among species of Cladophoraceae, we obtained a sequence only for Clado-phora opaca, a Japanese species not previously recorded from North America, and an undetermined species of Rhi-zoclonium. We sequenced three species of Derbesia, none of which is D. marina, the currently recognized species for this area; all three require taxonomic treatment. A sequence for a shell-boring species, which is tentatively identified as Eugomontia sacculata, was also obtained. These findings extend our understanding of the diversity and biogeography of green macroalgae in the northeast Pacific.
In recent years, macroalgal bloom occurs frequently in coastal oceans worldwide. It might be attributed to accelerating climate change. "Green tide" events caused by proliferation of green macroalgae (Ulva spp.) not only damage the local economy, but also harm coastal environments. These nuisance events have become common across several coastal regions of continents. In Korea, green tide incidences are readily seen throughout the year along the coastlines of Jeju Island, particularly the northeastern coast, since the 2000s. Ulva species are notorious to be difficult for morphology-based species identification due to their high degrees of phenotypic plasticity. In this study, to investigate temporal variation in Ulva community structure on Jeju Island between 2015 and 2020, chloroplast barcode tuf A gene was sequenced and phylogenetically analyzed for 152 specimens from 24 sites. We found that Ulva ohnoi and Ulva pertusa known to be originated from subtropical regions were the most predominant all year round, suggesting that these two species contributed the most to local green tides in this region. While U. pertusa was relatively stable in frequency during 2015 to 2020, U. ohnoi increased 16% in frequency in 2020 (36.84%), which might be associated with rising sea surface temperature from which U. ohnoi could benefit. Two species (Ulva flexuosa, Ulva procera) of origins of Europe should be continuously monitored. The findings of this study provide valuable information and molecular genetic data of genus Ulva occurring in southern coasts of Korea, which will help mitigate negative influences of green tide events on Korea coast.
In the present study, the whole chloroplast (cp) genome of B. marginata was characterized for the first time and genomic features were comparatively analyzed with six relative species in Ulvales. The cp genome of B. marginata was 170, 562 bp in length, exhibiting similar general structure but different in GC content from Ulva and Pseudendoclonium. A total of 113 unique genes were annotated, including 84 protein-coding genes, 26 tRNA and 3 rRNA. A higher level of rearrangements and small syntenic blocks exists comparing the locally collinear blocks. Codon usage analysis identified 30 biased codons with A or U-ended. Sequence analysis detected a total of 23 forward repeats, 18 palindrome repeats, 8 reverse repeats and 38 SSRs with different types. The phylogenetic analyses based on the entire cp genome suggested that Blidingia is closer to Ulva than to Pseudendoclonium. The entire cp genome of Blidingia provides a valuable resource for further studies.
