Daniela Gabriel

CIBIO Research Center in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources | CIBIO

Large masses of pelagic Sargassum occur in the Atlantic Ocean between the latitudes 5◦S and 38◦N. Since 2011, inundations have happened in the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean, and West Africa, affecting biological com- munities and economies. A series of severe weather events in the Azores led to a Sargassum inundation between mid-December 2023 and e...

Specimens found in a tide pool on Santa Maria Island (Azores) were identified in situ as the green alga Penicillus capitatus (Halimedaceae, Bryopsidales). DNA-based analyses of two genetic markers (rbcL and tufA) confirmed the identification and indicated that the Azorean population is closely related to those from the Western Atlantic. P. capitatu...

Up to the present study, only 8.5% of the 522 macroalgal species reported at the Azores have sequences deposited in GenBank and BOLD public repositories. The sequences of four genetic markers (cox1, rbcL, UPA, tufA) were obtained for recently collected samples from two Azorean islands. DNA barcode-assisted identification was conducted on newly gene...

Non‐native species (NNS) might become invasive and threaten biodiversity, economy and public health. Therefore, it is essential that their invasiveness risk be quantified to support conservation measures. The Azores, located in the mid‐northern Atlantic, is the crossroad of macroalgal native distributions and also present almost three times the glo...

Non-native species (NNS) represent a threat to biodiversity, and their occurrence and distribution should be periodically updated and made easily available to researchers and policymakers. An updated inventory of macroalgal NNS currently present in the Azores was produced based on published reports. Data concerning the first report and the distribu...

This paper aims to guide the stakeholder engagement process related to plastic pollution research in marine environments. We draw on advice identified during an online workshop (Ocean Plastic Workshop 2022) organized by Early Career Ocean Professionals (ECOPs) from 11 countries, held in April 2022. International experts and workshop participants di...

Phymatolithon Foslie is one of the most studied and ecologically important genera of crustose coralline algae (CCA) due to their dominant abundance in various marine ecosystems worldwide. The taxonomy of the genus is complex and has been revised and updated many times based on morphological and molecular analyses. We report on a crustose coralline...

In the past, non-geniculate coralline algae in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico have been identified based primarily on comparative morpho-anatomy. Recent studies employing DNA sequencing techniques combined with morpho-anatomical studies using SEM have revealed a wealth of previously undocumented diversity of rhodolith-forming non-geniculate corall...

Scenarios constitute narratives or storylines that reasonably describe how the future is likely to unfold. The usefulness of scenarios in Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) is now recognised within policy and research, with many institutions urging the development of likely trajectories in the future state of the marine environment and space. However,...

This paper explores how geography shapes human uses of the maritime space along the Atlantic archipelagic territories of Macaronesia, a biogeographical region that includes the archipelagos of the Azores, Madeira, Selvagens, Canary Islands and Cape Verde. The way specific geographic characteristics of these islands influence and even determine mari...

The gelatinous, calciferous red alga Renouxia antillana was described in 1995 based on material from Guadeloupe, French West Indies, and accommodated in a new family and order (Rhodogorgonaceae, Rhodogorgonales) along with the genus Rhodogorgon from Belize and Caribbean Panama. For more than 20 years, Renouxia has remained monotypic, with rare repo...

Case study for Western (Brazil) and Eastern (Cape Verde, Senegal) tropical Atlantic countries, information on marine and coastal natural resources and their use and exploitation status

This paper reports a recently discovered population of Caulerpa prolifera in the Azores (NE Atlantic), which becomes the westernmost record of this species in European waters. Morphological, anatomical and molecular characters were investigated for species recognition. The occurrence of the species in the Azores represents a northern expansion of i...

An updated list of the names of the marine macroalgae of Cabo Verde, an archipelago of ten volcanic islands in the central Atlantic Ocean, is presented based on existing reports, and includes the addition of 36 species. The checklist comprises a total of 372 species names, of which 68 are brown algae (Ochrophyta), 238 are red algae (Rhodophyta) and...

Acrothamnion preissii is an invasive species in the Mediterranean Sea, and is listed among the 100 worst non-indigenous species. In July and August 2009, this non-native red macroalga was found for the first time in the Azores (on Santa Maria), and this represents the first record of this species in the Atlantic. Here, we describe the establishment...

Genera in the Rhodymeniaceae Harvey that have a hollow thallus lacking diaphragms have been placed in Chrysymenia J. Agardh 1842 (including Gloiosaccion Harvey 1859), Botryocladia (J. Agardh) Kylin 1931, Irvinea Guiry in Saunders et al. 1999, and Cresia C. Lozada-Troche, D.L. Ballantine & H. Ruíz 2010. Chrysymenia has traditionally been defined by...

The tropical alga previously recognized as Gibsmithia hawaiiensis (Dumontiaceae, Rhodophyta) was recently suggested to represent a complex of species distributed throughout the Indo-Pacific Ocean and characterized by a peculiar combination of hairy (pilose) gelatinous lobes growing on cartilaginous stalks. Phylogenetic reconstructions based on thre...

CIBIO-Açores, a research unit based at the University of the Azores and integrated in the Research Network on Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology (InBIO, Associated Laboratory), organizes the first edition of its Spring Seminar with the purpose of disseminating its research activities within the academic community, but also with the funding agenc...

Gibsmithia hawaiiensis is a peculiar red alga characterized by furry gelatinous lobes arising from a cartilaginous stalk. The species has been recorded from tropical reef systems throughout the Indo-Pacific. A multilocus phylogeny (UPA, rbcL, COI-5P) of 36 specimens collected throughout the species distribution range, showed high genetic diversity...

The crustose red algal genus Peyssonnelia (Peyssonneliales, Rhodophyta) in the Azores: from five to one species. Arquipelago. Life and Marine Sciences 32: 1-9. The family Peyssonneliaceae comprises a worldwide group of non-calcified to calcified, crust-forming red algae of great ecological significance. Of the genera currently recognized in the fam...

Due to their sedentary characteristic and the sensibility of certain taxa to excessive nutrients or toxic substances, the benthic macroalgal assemblage of a given locality reflects the effects of long-term exposure to pollution. For this reason, seaweeds have been used to assess the environmental condition of coastal communities. Since the Water Fr...

In the northwestern Gulf of Mexico, beds of rhodoliths and unconsolidated rubble at 55-70 m depth are associated with unique offshore deep bank habitats known as salt domes or diapirs. Prior to the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill these harbored the highest known seaweed diversity in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Six post-spill cruises led offsho...

The generic concepts of the crustose family Peyssonneliaceae will be critically assessed in a revised worldwide phylogeny of the family on the basis of phylogenetic analysis of chloroplast-encoded rbcL and tufA, chloroplast 23S UPA and mitochondrial cox1 sequences derived from 336 samples worldwide representing 172 species and twelve genera. Type o...

Molecular characterization (plastid-encoded tufA gene) of New Caledonian members of the Caulerpa racemosa–Caulerpa peltata complex identified five lineages, each possibly harboring multiple species-level entities. On a global scale, the complex encompassed six lineages, two of which were pantropical and the remainder seemingly were restricted to th...

2nd South China Sea Conference, 18-24 October 2012, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Comparative rbeL. sequence analysis indicates that the species going under the name Schizymenia dubyi in the Azores should be referred to as S. apoda. Sequences of Sehizymenia specimens from China and Namibia were also identified as S. epode, of which the type locality is the Cape Province in South Africa. Sehizymenia dubyi, described from Atlantic...

Gelidium J.V. Lamouroux is an economically and ecologically important red algal genus including about 118 species worldwide. A total of 17 species are reported in Korea. We collected G. crinale, G. divaricatum, G. elegans, G. vagum, an unidentified species and studied phylogenetic relationships of the species using rbcL, psaA, and cox1 genes. Topol...

Punctaria tenuissima (Chordariaceae, Phaeophyceae) is reported for the first time from the Azores. Erect thalli were collected on the Island of Sao Miguel; they were up to 3 cm long, flattened and often twisted. The plurilocular sporangia were formed from surface cells that were quadrate or rectangular in surface view. Unilocular sporangia were not...

The red algal genus Platoma Schmitz (Schizymeniaceae, Nemastomatales) with type Platoma cyclocolpum (Montagne) Schmitz was originally described from the Canary Islands. Life history studies were conducted on P. cyclocolpum from the Azores under 10uC/8:16 light (L):dark (D), 15uC/16:8 L:D, and 23uC/natural daylight regimes in culture. Three nonrepro...

The Peyssonneliaceae Denizot comprises a worldwide group of non-calcified or calcified, crust-forming red algae found in diverse, intertidal to deep subtidal marine habitats. Eight genera have been recognized in the family, with Peyssonnelia Decaisne having the largest number of species. Both comparative morphology and rbcL and nuclear LSU rDNA seq...

Kumanoa), and the Sections Aristata, Helminthoidea and Batrachospermum of Batrachospermum. We also provide a new name, B. montagnei, for the illegitimate B. guyanense. This tax-onomic synthesis increases the level of monophyly within the Batrachospermales, but minimises taxonomic change where data are still needed.

The red algal genus Predaea (Rhodophyta, Nemastomataceae, Nemastomatales) currently comprises 20 species found in tropical to temperate waters worldwide. The species going under the name Predaea feldmannii (Nemastomataceae, Nemastomatales) in the Azores is here reduced to subspecies rank as P. feldmannii subsp. azorica on the basis of comparative m...

Two species of Scinaia that have been reported to co-exist in the Azores, S. furcellata and S. interrupta, are commonly confused. In the present study, recently collected specimens from the Azorean Archipelago and historical vouchers housed in The Natural History Museum (BM) and Conservatoire et Jardin Botanique de la Ville de Genève (G) were inves...

Two species of Scinaia that have been reported to co-exist in the Azores, S. furcellata and S. interrupta, are commonly confused. In the present study, recently collected specimens from the Azorean Archipelago and historical vouchers housed in The Natural History Museum (BM) and Conservatoire et Jardin Botanique de la Ville de Genève (G) were inves...

Gametes of the marine green alga, U. compressa, are biflagellate and pear-shaped, having one eye-spot and varying in size between different mating types. Sexuality of green algae has been defined by the cell size of gametes. However, the relative position of an eyespot and a mating structure to flagellar roots was recently found to be opposite betw...

The effect of nitrogen (N) load and irradiance on morphology, growth and photosyn- thetic performance was studied in the green macroalga Caulerpa prolifera (Forsskål) J. V. Lamouroux from the Gulf of Cádiz (south Spain). Constant growth rates were obtained for thalli growing at dif- ferent N loads, which could be fitted to tissue N using the Droop...