Patrick T Martone

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Verified

Patrick verified their affiliation via an institutional email.

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• PhD
• Professor at University of British Columbia

Kelps and coralline algae are important primary producers and habitat‐builders in rocky intertidal ecosystems. On wave‐exposed shores along the west coast of North America, Hedophyllum sessile and Alaria marginata are two dominant kelp species with juveniles that often occur at a higher density on articulated corallines than other available substra...

Baseline data are critical to measuring how communities shift in response to climate change and anthropogenic activity. However, baseline macroalgal biodiversity data are lacking for many areas of British Columbia, particularly at a high temporal resolution over years. This presents an obstacle for measuring how communities change in response to sh...

Historical baseline data are critical to measuring how communities shift in response to climate change and anthropogenic activity. Macroalgae are marine foundation species that are vulnerable to climate change, but there is a lack of baseline macroalgal biodiversity data for many areas of British Columbia, particularly at a high temporal resolution...

Seaweeds are widely assumed to be phenotypically plastic across hydrodynamic gradients, yet while many marine macroalgae exhibit intraspecific phenotypic variation that correlates with flow, researchers often fail to test whether such variation is due to plasticity or another mechanism, such as local adaptation. In this minireview, we considered me...

Species interactions can influence key ecological processes that support community assembly and composition. For example, coralline algae encompass extensive diversity and may play a major role in regime shifts from kelp forests to urchin‐dominated barrens through their role in inducing invertebrate larval metamorphosis and influencing kelp spore s...

Culturing kelps for commercial, conservation, and scientific purposes is becoming increasingly widespread. However, kelp aquaculture methods are typically designed for ocean‐based farms, and these methods may not be applicable for smaller scale cultivation efforts common in research and restoration. Growing kelps in closed, recirculating culture sy...

A long-held paradigm in marine herbivore ecology is that calcified coralline algae are less nutritious than their uncalcified, fleshy counterparts, partially explaining why herbivores prefer to consume uncalcified algae. The basis for this assumption is that calcium carbonate (CaCO 3 ) comprises a large portion of coralline thalli and is a dense, n...

Species richness is an essential biodiversity variable indicative of ecosystem states and rates of invasion, speciation and extinction both contemporarily and in fossil records. However, limited sampling effort and spatial aggregation of organisms mean that biodiversity surveys rarely observe every species in the survey area. Here we present a non-...

To determine whether Corallina chilensis is a distinct species or a variety (i.e. C. officinalis var. chilensis) of the generitype of Corallina, molecular phylogenetic analyses were performed using psbA, COI-5P, rbcL, or some combination of these gene regions from 75 voucher specimens representing Corallina collections from around the world. Names...

Significant questions remain about how ecosystems that are structured by abiotic stress will be affected by climate change. Warmer temperatures are hypothesized to shift species along abiotic gradients such that distributions track changing environments where physical conditions allow. However, community‐scale impacts of extreme warming in heteroge...

Ocean warming and acidification are predicted to impact the physiology of marine organisms, especially marine calcifiers that must deposit calcium carbonate and resist dissolution. Of particular concern are articulated coralline algae, which must maintain both calcified segments (intergenicula) and uncalcified joints (genicula) in order to thrive a...

Partial rbcL sequences from type specimens of three of the earliest described Corallina species showed that C. arbuscula (type locality: Unalaska Island, Alaska, USA) and C. pilulifera (type locality: Okhotsk Sea, Russia) are synonymous, with C. pilulifera as the taxonomically accepted name, and that C. vancouveriensis (type locality: Botanical Bea...

The discovery of lignins in the coralline red alga Calliarthron tuberculosum raised new questions about the deep evolution of lignin biosynthesis. Here we present the transcriptome of C. tuberculosum supported with newly generated genomic data to identify gene candidates from the monolignol biosynthetic pathway using a combination of sequence simil...

Nereocystis luetkeana is a large, canopy‐forming kelp that is commonly found in nearshore waters between Alaska and California. Despite regularly reaching lengths in excess of 30 m, this alga demonstrates a remarkable ability to endure hydrodynamically stressful environments without being dislodged by waves or currents. While morphological aspects...

Species richness is an essential biodiversity variable indicative of ecosystem states and mass extinctions both contemporarily and in fossil records. However, limitations to sampling effort and spatial aggregation of organisms mean that surveys often fail to observe some species, making it difficult to estimate true richness and hinder the comparis...

Seaweeds inhabiting wave-battered coastlines are generally flexible, bending with the waves to adopt more streamlined shapes and reduce drag. Coralline algae, however, are firmly calcified, existing largely as crusts that avoid drag altogether or as upright branched forms with uncalcified joints (genicula) that confer flexibility to otherwise rigid...

The discovery of lignins in the coralline red alga Calliarthron tuberculosum raised new questions about the deep evolution of lignin biosynthesis. Here we present the transcriptome of C. tuberculosum supported with newly generated genomic data to identify gene candidates from the monolignol biosynthetic pathway using a combination of sequence simil...

In land plants and algae, cellulose is important for strengthening cell walls and preventing breakage due to physical forces. Though our understanding of cellulose production by cellulose synthase enzymes (CESAs) has seen significant advances for several land plant and bacterial species, functional characterization of this fundamental protein is ab...

Highlight CESAs within the red algal lineage share a close evolutionary relationship, but have not been functionally demonstrated. This study functionally characterizes CESA from the coralline alga Calliarthron, including its floridean starch binding capacity. Downloaded from https Abstract In land plants and algae, cellulose is important for stren...

Forecasting how climate change will impact biological systems represents a grand challenge for biologists. However, climate change biology lacks an effective framework for anticipating and resolving uncertainty. Here, we introduce the concept of climate change wildcards: biological or bioclimatic processes with a high degree of uncertainty and a la...

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 al...

Physical principles and laws determine the set of possible organismal phenotypes. Constraints arising from development, the environment, and evolutionary history then yield workable, integrated phenotypes. We propose a theoretical and practical framework that considers the role of changing environments. This 'ecomechanical approach' integrates func...

A partial rbcL sequence of the lectotype specimen of Corallina berteroi shows that it is the earliest available name for C. ferreyrae. Multilocus species delimitation analyses (ABGD, SPN, GMYC, bPTP and BPP) using independent or concatenated COI, psbA and rbcL sequences recognized one, two or three species in this complex, but only with weak suppor...

Organellar genomes serve as useful models for genome evolution and contain some of the most widely used phylogenetic markers, but they are poorly characterized in many lineages. Here we report 20 novel mitochondrial genomes and 16 novel plastid genomes from the brown algae. We focused our efforts on the orders Chordales and Laminariales, but also p...

Significant questions remain about how ecosystems that are structured by abiotic stress will be affected by climate warming. A well-supported hypothesis states that warming will cause species to shift along abiotic gradients, such that distributions track changing local conditions. Here, we investigated the impacts of a multi-year heatwave on commu...

Calcification is widely thought to be an adaptation that reduces the impact of herbivory. Recent work has shown that ocean acidification may negatively impact calcification of marine organisms, including coralline red algae, which could theoretically increase the susceptibility of corallines to benthic grazers. By manipulating calcium carbonate con...

Seaweed‐associated microbiota are essential for the health and resilience of nearshore ecosystems, marine biogeochemical cycling, and host health. Yet much remains unknown about the ecology of seaweed‐microbe symbioses. In this study, we quantified fine‐scale patterns of microbial community structure across distinct anatomical regions of the kelp L...

Large eukaryotes support diverse communities of microbes on their surface-epibiota-that profoundly influence their biology. Alternate factors known to structure complex patterns of microbial diversity-host evolutionary history and ecology, environmental conditions and stochasticity-do not act independently and it is challenging to disentangle their...

Coralline algae perform important ecological roles in nearshore marine ecosystems globally by promoting the settlement of invertebrate larvae and enhancing biodiversity by creating habitat. However, these roles are severely threatened by global environmental changes. Most coralline algae are extremely difficult to identify, and DNA sequencing has r...

Much of the morphological and ecological diversity present on earth is believed to have arisen through the process of adaptive radiation. Yet, this is seemingly at odds with substantial evidence that niches tend to be similar among closely related species (i.e. niche conservatism). Identifying the relative importance of these opposing processes in...

The sensitivity of kelps to elevated temperatures has been linked to recent declines in some kelp populations, with cascading impacts on marine communities. However, it remains unclear how thermal stress affects the ability of kelps to respond to other environmental factors, which could influence their vulnerability to climate change. We investigat...

The subtidal kelp Nereocystis luetkeana (hereafter Nereocystis ) maintains an upright stature by producing a single gas‐filled float (pneumatocyst) that provides buoyancy. The ability of Nereocystis pneumatocysts to inflate with gas underwater is peculiar, and the gas composition of pneumatocysts has been the topic of several studies over the last...

Nereocystis luetkeana is a canopy‐forming kelp that exhibits morphological plasticity across hydrodynamic gradients, producing broad, undulate blades in slow flow and narrow, flattened blades in fast flow, enabling thalli to reduce drag while optimizing photosynthesis. While the functional significance of this phenomenon has been well studied, the...

The glass sponge Aphrocallistes vastus contributes to the formation of large reefs unique to the Northeast Pacific Ocean. These habitats have tremendous filtration capacity that facilitates flow of carbon between trophic levels. Their sensitivity and resilience to climate change, and thus persistence in the Anthropocene, is unknown. Here we show th...

Much of the morphological and ecological diversity present on earth is believed to have arisen through the process of adaptive radiation. Yet, this is seemingly at odds with substantial evidence that niches tend to be similar among closely related species (i.e., niche conservatism). Identifying the relative importance of these opposing processes in...

Main conclusion Cellulosic secondary walls evolved convergently in coralline red macroalgae, reinforcing tissues against wave-induced breakage, despite differences in cellulose abundance, microfibril orientation, and wall structure. Abstract Cellulose-enriched secondary cell walls are the hallmark of woody vascular plants, which develop thickened...

The transcription factor KNOTTED ARABIDOPSIS THALIANA7 (KNAT7) is a Class II KNOTTED1‐like homeobox (KNOX2) gene that, in interfascicular fibres, acts as a negative regulator of secondary cell wall biosynthesis. In addition, knat7 loss‐of‐function mutants display an irregular xylem (irx) phenotype, suggesting a potential positive regulatory role in...

Understanding how trophic dynamics drive variation in biodiversity is essential for predicting the outcomes of trophic downgrading across the world’s ecosystems. However, assessing the biodiversity of morphologically cryptic lineages can be problematic, yet may be crucial to understanding ecological patterns. Shifts in keystone predation that favor...

Maintaining buoyancy with gas‐filled floats (pneumatocysts) is essential for some subtidal kelps to achieve an upright stature and compete for light used for photosynthesis. However, as these kelps grow up through the water column, pneumatocysts are exposed to substantial changes in hydrostatic pressure, which could cause complications as internal...

Macroalgal life histories are complex, often involving the alternation of distinct free‐living life‐history phases that differ in morphology, longevity, and ploidy. The surfaces of marine macroalgae support diverse microbial biofilms, yet the degree of microbial variation between alternate phases is unknown. We quantified bacterial (16S rRNA gene)...

Cryptic species complexes are increasingly recognized in phycological research, obscuring taxonomy and raising questions about factors influencing speciation. A recent exploration of kelp genetic diversity on Haida Gwaii, British Columbia revealed the existence of a new species, Saccharina druehlii, which is cryptic with Saccharina sessilis. This s...

Laminaria is an abundant kelp genus in temperate nearshore ecosystems that grows with a circannual ‘stop-start’ pattern. Species of Laminaria play important ecological roles in kelp forests worldwide and are harvested commercially as a source of food and valuable extracts. In order to evaluate seasonal differences in tissue properties and compositi...

The evolution of uncalcified genicula in upright, calcified corallines has occurred at least three times independently, resulting in articulated corallines within Corallinoideae, Lithophylloideae, and Metagoniolithoideae. Genicula confer flexibility to otherwise rigid thalli, and the localization of bending at discrete intervals amplifies bending s...

Early life stages of marine organisms are predicted to be vulnerable to ocean acidification. For macroalgae, reproduction and population persistence rely on spores to settle, adhere and continue the algal life cycle, yet the effect of ocean acidification on this critical life stage has been largely overlooked. We explicitly tested the biomechanical...

The partitioning of plant biomass among specific organs is fundamental to growth and survival strategies and can have broad-scale implications in plant ecology. Although partitioning patterns have been studied extensively in seed plants, marine plants have received little attention despite their important role in nearshore communities. In this stud...

Kelps are a clade of morphologically diverse, ecologically important habitat-forming species. Many kelps live in wave-swept environments and are exposed to chronic flow-induced stress. In order to grow and survive in these harsh environments, kelps can streamline (reducing drag coefficient) to avoid drag or increase attachment and breakage force to...

Biomass allocation patterns have received substantial consideration, leading to the recognition of several ‘universal’ interspecific trends. Despite efforts to understand biomass partitioning among embryophytes, few studies have examined macroalgae that evolved independently, yet function ecologically in much the same ways as plants. Kelps allocate...

Molecular phylogenetic analyses of 18S rDNA (SSU) gene sequences confirm the placement of Crusticorallina gen. nov. in Corallinoideae, the first non-geniculate genus in an otherwise geniculate subfamily. Crusticorallina is distinguished from all other coralline genera by the following suite of morpho-anatomical characters: 1) sunken, uniporate game...

Flexible joints are a key innovation in the evolution of upright coralline algae. These structures have evolved in parallel at least three separate times, allowing the otherwise rigid, calcified thalli of upright corallines to achieve flexibility when subjected to hydrodynamic stress. As all bending occurs at the joints, stress is amplified, which...

Premise of the study: Phenotypic plasticity and convergent evolution have long complicated traditional morphological taxonomy. Fortunately, DNA sequences provide an additional basis for comparison, independent of morphology. Most importantly, by obtaining DNA sequences from historical type specimens, we are now able to unequivocally match species...

Lignin plays an important role in plant structural support and water transport, and is considered one of the hallmarks of land plants. The recent discovery of lignin or its precursors in various algae has raised questions on the evolution of its biosynthetic pathway, which could be much more ancient than previously thought. To determine the taxonom...

Wave-swept macroalgae present an excellent system for studying the effects of chronic physical stress on the morphological evolution of plants. Wave-induced water velocities impose great drag forces, leading to a morphological tradeoff between light interception and drag reduction/tolerance. What are the hydrodynamic consequences of morphological d...

Coralline red algae play a key role in the ecology of near shore marine ecosystems and are increasingly being used to study the effects of climate change in the marine environment. Corallines are very difficult to identify to species, and even to genus, using morpho-anatomy, likely complicating studies of their ecology, physiology, and biodiversity...

Ocean acidification caused by rising atmospheric CO2 is predicted to negatively impact growth and calcification rates of coralline algae. Decreases in coralline abundance may have cascading effects on marine ecosystems and on carbon sequestration worldwide. In this study, we measured growth and calcification rates of three common species of articul...

Epiphytic algae grow on other algae rather than hard substrata, perhaps circumventing competition for space in marine ecosystems. Aquatic epiphytes are widely thought to negatively affect host fitness; it is also possible that epiphytes benefit from associating with hosts. This study explored biomechanical costs and benefits of the epiphytic associ...

Intertidal macroalgae endure light, desiccation, and temperature variation associated with submerged and emerged conditions on a daily basis. Physiological stresses exist over the course of the entire tidal cycle, and physiological differences in response to these stresses likely contribute to spatial separation of species along the shore. For exam...

Intertidal organisms are subjected to intense hydrodynamic forces as waves break on the shore. These repeated insults can cause a plant or animal's structural materials to fatigue and fail, even though no single force would be sufficient to break the organism. Indeed, the survivorship and maximum size of at least one species of seaweed is set by th...

Red algae have the most gene-rich plastid genomes known, but despite their evolutionary importance these genomes remain poorly sampled. Here we characterize three complete and one partial plastid genome from a diverse range of florideophytes. By unifying annotations across all available red algal plastid genomes we show they all share a highly comp...

Plastid gene dN rates. Boxplot is showing relative nonsynonymous substitution rates (dN) and their standard deviation (interquartile range; IQR) for all selected red algal plastid genes including rbcL, mitochondrial cox1 and 5′ coding region of cox1 (5′cox1). Median is indicated by a solid line, the sample minimum and maximum are indicated by dotte...

Maximum likelihood phylogenies of leuC and leuD individually. numbers at nodes correspond to RAxML rapid boostrap (left) and PhyML SH-aLRT supports (right). The topologies are broadly consistent with the concatenated phylogeny shown in Figure 4. (TIFF)

Annotation changes in publicly available red algal plastid genomes. (XLS)

Boxplot statistics of nonsynonymous substitution rates estimated using Maximum likelihood. (XLS)

Single gene inversions in Pyropia. Linearized maps of plastid ribosomal super cluster from the Bangiales Porphyra (top) and Pyropia (bottom). Pyropia has three single gene inversions relative to Porphyra, and all other red algal and secondary red alga-derived plastid genomes. (TIFF)

Invasive species possess unique traits that allow them to navigate the invasion process in order to establish and spread in new habitats. Successful hull fouling invaders must resist both physical and physiological stressors associated with their voyage. We characterised attachment strength and drag coefficient of common fouling species in order to...

Phycologists have hypothesized that the diminutive fronds produced by species in the genera Chiharaea and Yamadaia, which are composed of comparatively few genicula and intergenicula, represent morphological intermediates in the evolution of articulated corallines from crustose ancestors. We test this intermediate frond hypothesis by comparing rbcL...

Premise of the study: Intertidal macroalgae must resist extreme hydrodynamic forces imposed by crashing waves. How does frond flexibility mitigate drag, and how does flexibility affect predictions of drag and dislodgement in the field? Methods: We characterized flexible reconfiguration of six seaweed species in a recirculating water flume, docum...

Over the last two decades, many studies on functional morphology have suggested that material properties of seaweed tissues may influence their fitness. Because hydrodynamic forces are likely the largest source of mortality for seaweeds in high wave energy environments, tissues with material properties that behave favorably in these environments ar...

Recent molecular phylogenetic investigations of the red algal genus Mastocarpus from the northeast Pacific resolved numerous cryptic species. Although species were clearly defined through genetic analyses, the correct names to apply to the species remained unclear due to both morphological variability within species and morphological similarity bet...

Phylogenetic analyses of rbcL sequences demonstrate that Calliarthron as currently constituted is paraphyletic. Calliarthron yessoense and C. latissimum from the northwest Pacific belong in Alatocladia and are conspecific. After the transfer of C. yessoense and C. latissimum, Calliarthron is monophyletic, known only from the northeast Pacific and c...

The Plantae comprising red, green (including land plants), and glaucophyte algae are postulated to have a single common ancestor that is the founding lineage of photosynthetic eukaryotes. However, recent multiprotein phylogenies provide little or no support for this hypothesis. This may reflect limited complete genome data available for red algae,...

Plant and animal biomechanists have much in common. Although their frame of reference differs, they think about the natural world in similar ways. While researchers studying animals might explore airflow around flapping wings, the actuation of muscles in arms and legs, or the material properties of spider silk, researchers studying plants might exp...

Intertidal macroalgae must tolerate temperature, light, and desiccation stresses when the tide recedes, and differences in physiological tolerance to these environmental stresses contribute directly to zonation patterns and community structure along the shore. When low tides occur on particularly hot sunny days, seaweeds may sustain physiological d...

The articulated coralline Calliarthron cheilosporioides Manza produces segmented fronds composed of calcified segments (intergenicula) separated by uncalcified joints (genicula), which allow fronds to bend and reorient under breaking waves in the wave-swept intertidal zone. Genicula are formed when calcified cells decalcify and restructure to creat...

Growth and calcium carbonate deposition rates of the coralline alga Calliarthron cheilosporioides Manza were quantified by monitoring fronds in the intertidal zone that had been chemically labeled with the nontoxic fluorescent brightener Calcofluor white. This vital stain effectively labeled apical meristems of coralline thalli in the field: fronds...

Lignified cell walls are widely considered to be key innovations in the evolution of terrestrial plants from aquatic ancestors some 475 million years ago. Lignins, complex aromatic heteropolymers, stiffen and fortify secondary cell walls within xylem tissues, creating a dense matrix that binds cellulose microfibrils and crosslinks other wall compon...

Previous studies have demonstrated that fleshy seaweeds resist wave-induced drag forces in part by being flexible. Flexibility allows fronds to 'go with the flow', reconfiguring into streamlined shapes and reducing frond area projected into flow. This paradigm extends even to articulated coralline algae, which produce calcified fronds that are flex...

Previous studies have hypothesized that wave-induced drag forces may constrain the size of intertidal organisms by dislodging or breaking organisms that exceed some critical dimension. In this study, we explored constraints on the size of the articulated coralline alga Calliarthron, which thrives in wave-exposed intertidal habitats. Its ability to...

Previous biomechanical studies of wave-swept macroalgae have revealed a trade-off in growth strategies to resist breakage in the intertidal zone: growing in girth versus growing strong tissues. Brown macroalgae, such as kelps, grow thick stipes but have weak tissues, while red macroalgae grow slender thalli but have much stronger tissues. For examp...

Articulated coralline algae (Corallinales, Rhodophyta) dominate low-intertidal, wave-exposed habitats around the world, yet the mechanics of this diverse group of organisms has been almost completely unexplored. In contrast to fleshy seaweeds, articulated corallines consist of calcified segments (intergenicula) separated by uncalcified joints (geni...