Subantarctic marine algae

• Published in: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological Sciences
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Royal Society 1960
• Subjects: Antarctic; Graham Land; New Zealand; Skottsberg; The Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.1960.0073; https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspb.1960.0073

To the most interesting shore profiles shown by Professor Knox this morning, I should like to add a few words. When visiting the subantarctic islands of New Zealand in 1927, I was surprised to find that the uppermost belt of marine algae was largely dominated by the subfruticulose crustaceous red alga Hildenbrandia le-canellierii (Du Rietz 1939; Skottsberg 1941). This species was not previously noted from this part of the subantarctic zone, but was known to be common in the South American part of this zone and in the Graham Land district of the Antarctic (Skottsberg 1941). In the subantarctic islands of New Zealand, other important dominants of the belt with optimally developed Hildenbrandia le-canellierii were the lichens Lichina intermedia ( L. pygmaea var. intermedia Bab.) and Verrucaria striatula var. australis . Above this belt, there was a black lichen belt, the most important dominant of which was at least very nearly related to the common boreal species V. maura . A little higher up this was gradually replaced by the grey species V. durietzii M. Lamb, and by the characteristic orange-coloured belt dominated by Caloplaca sublobulata . This species and several of the others are found also in the subantarctic parts of South America. Several of the lichens of the subantarctic sea shores are nearly related to (or in extreme cases even identical with) species growing in the corresponding belts of the sea shores of the boreal zone. They are all of very great interest from a general phytogeographic point of view, and I should be very glad to receive lichen material from any botanist or zoologist working on the zonation of life on marine shores in the southern cold temperate zone.