12th International Phycological Congress

• Published in: Phycologia
• Main Authors: Peña, Viviana, Belanger, David, Gagnon, Patrick, Richards, Joseph L., Le Gall, Line, Hughey, Jeffery, Saunders, Gary W., Lindstrom, Sandra C., Rinde, Eli, Husa, Vivian, Christie, Hartvig, Fredriksen, Stein, Hallspencer, Jason M., Steneck, Robert S., Schoenrock, Kathryn M., Gitmark, Janne, Grefsrud, Ellen Sofie, Anglès D’auriac, Marc B., Legrand, Erwann, Grall, Jacques, Mumford, Thomas, Kamenos, Nicholas A., Gabrielson, Paul W.
• Other Authors: Universidade da Coruña, Memorial University of Newfoundland = Université Memorial de Terre-Neuve St. John's, Canada (MUN), University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Biology Department, Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité (ISYEB ), Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-École pratique des hautes études (EPHE), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université des Antilles (UA), Hartnell College, University of New Brunswick (UNB), University of British Columbia (UBC)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2021
• Subjects: Biogeography; coralline red algae; taxonomy; [SDV.BV]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Vegetal Biology; [SDV.BID]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Biodiversity; [SDV.BBM.BM]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Biochemistry; Molecular Biology/Molecular biology; [SDV.BID.SPT]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Biodiversity/Systematics; Phylogenetics and taxonomy; [SDV]Life Sciences [q-bio]; Arctic; Northeast Atlantic; Subarctic
• Online Access: https://hal-mnhn.archives-ouvertes.fr/mnhn-03514678; https://doi.org/10.1080/00318884.2021.1922050

International audience Coralline red algae in the genera Clathromorphum, Phymatolithon and Lithothamnion are important benthic ecosystem engineers in the photic zone of the Arctic and Subarctic. In these regions, the systematics and biogeography of Clathromorphum and Phymatolithon species have mostly been resolved whereas Lithothamnion species have not. Seventy-three specific and infraspecific names have been given to Arctic and Subarctic Lithothamnion specimens, the vast majority by Mikael H. Foslie in the late 19th and early 20th century. From the type specimens of 38 of these names, partial rbcL sequences were obtained that enabled us to correctly apply the earliest available names and to correctly place the remainder in synonymy.Three of the four Arctic and Subarctic Lithothamnion species, L. lemoineae, L. soriferum and L. tophiforme were distinct based on all three sequenced genes, two plastid encoded, rbcL and psbA, and the mitochondrial encoded COI-5P; rbcL and COI-5P also segregated L. glaciale from L. tophiforme but psbA did not. Based on DNA sequences, morpho-anatomy and biogeography, we recognize all four species. It is difficult to identify these species based on morpho-anatomy and they can all occur as encrusting corallines, as rhodoliths or as maerl. We demonstrate the importance of sequencing these historical type specimens by showing that the recently proposed northeast Atlantic L. erinaceum is a synonym of one of the earliest published Arctic species of Lithothamnion, L. soriferum, itself incorrectly placed in synonymy under L. tophiforme based on morpho-anatomy. Based on sequenced specimens, we update the distributions and ecology of these species.