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Biodiversity of Seaweeds in the Mediterranean Sea

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Biodiversity of Seaweeds in the Egyptian Marine Waters

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Abstract

The Mediterranean Sea is one of the most highly valued seas in the world. The region comprises a vast set of coastal and marine ecosystems that provide a variety of different services that are crucial for human well-being. Since the mid-twentieth century, water pollution became a serious problem due to increasing of industrialisation, coastal population, and tourism along several Mediterranean coastal areas. Pollution in the Mediterranean tends to persists near its source of discharge due to relatively weak tidal and current movements. Likewise, the Egyptian Mediterranean coastal areas suffer from degradation of water quality, and many hot spot areas are designated there, which had drastic effects on seaweeds biodiversity and other marine organisms. This chapter attempts to track changes that happened in the seaweeds community over more than 60 years along the coast of the Egyptian Mediterranean Sea.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Marine Environment Department, National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries (NIOF), Cairo, Egypt

    Nihal Galal El-Din Thabet Shams El-Din & Sarah Hamdy Rashedy

Authors
  1. Nihal Galal El-Din Thabet Shams El-Din
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  2. Sarah Hamdy Rashedy
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Appendix

Appendix

Pictures of some algal species collected and photographed by Nihal Galal El-Din Thabet Shams El-Din from the Egyptian Mediterranean Sea.

A photograph of Caulerpa racemosa on a petridish. The algal species has a small branched body.

Caulerpa racemosa (Forsskål) J. Agardh

A photograph of Caulerpa prolifera.

Caulerpa prolifera (Forsskål) J.V. Lamouroux

A photograph of the small branch of Cladophora pellucida. It has scale-like leaves.

Cladophora pellucida (Hudson) Kützing

A photograph of Cladophora glomerata on a petridish. The species has a filamentous structure.

Cladophora glomerata (Linnaeus) Kützing

A photograph of the Codium bursa on a petridish. The algae is rounded and spherical in structure.

Codium bursa (Linnaeus) C. Agardh

A photograph of Codium decorticatum on a glass plate. The algae has a branched structure.

Codium decorticatum (Woodward) M. Howe

A photograph of Codium taylorii. The organism is tufted and irregular in shape.

Codium taylorii P.C. Silva

A photograph of a Codium species. It has many cylindrical branches that further have several sub-branches that are tubular.

Codium sp.

A photograph of Ulva compressa Linnaeus on a petridish. It has thin sheet-like branches that spread radially.

Ulva compressa Linnaeus

A photograph of Ulva fasciata Delile in a petridish. It has thin, feathery, and ribbon-like fronds.

Ulva fasciata Delile

A photograph of Enteromorpha intestinalis Linnaeus. It has a tubular, convoluted, and filamentous structure.

Enteromorpha intestinalis Linnaeus

A photograph of Ulva prolifera in a petridish. It has a spongy and filamentous structure.

Ulva prolifera O.F. Müller

A photograph of Ulva lactuca Linnaeus in a petridish.

Ulva lactuca Linnaeus

A photograph of Colpomenia sinuosa in a petridish. It has a dark, brain-shaped structure.

Colpomenia sinuosa(Mertens ex Roth) Derbès & Solier

A photograph of Gongolaria barbata. It has several tubular branches with many dark nodes.

Gongolaria barbata (Stackhouse) Kuntze

A photograph of Cystoseira spinosa Sauvageau in a petridish. The species has many branches that are densely covered with small, spine-like structures.

Cystoseira spinosa Sauvageau

A photograph of Padina pavonica. It has fan-shaped fronds with lobed margins.

Padina pavonica (Linnaeus) Thivy

A photograph of the 2 strands of Petalonia fascia. The strands have irregular margins.

Petalonia fascia (O.F. Müller) Kuntze

A photograph of Sargassum acinarium in a petridish. The shape is branched and has several filament-like structures with spherical-shaped nodes.

Sargassum acinarium (Linnaeus) Setchell

A photograph of Taonia atomaria. It has a thin tubular structure.

Taonia atomaria (Woodward) J. Agardh

A photograph of 2 branches of Corallina officinalis. The sample resembles miniature coral branches.

Corallina officinalis Linnaeus

A photograph of Gelidium spinosum. It has dense and thin branches.

Gelidium spinosum (S.G. Gmelin) P.C. Silva

A photograph of Jania rubens. It has dense and filamentous branches.

Jania rubens (Linnaeus) J.V. Lamouroux

A photograph of Laurencia obtuse. It has several tapering branches.

Laurencia obtusa (Hudson) J.V. Lamouroux

A photograph of Palisada perforate. It has several convoluted filament-like structures that have several nodes.

Palisada perforata (Bory) K.W. NamCollected from Matruh, 2020

A photograph of Pterocladiella capillacea. It has many dense branches that have filamentous structures.

Pterocladiella capillacea (S.G. Gmelin) Santelices & Hommersand

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Galal El-Din Thabet Shams El-Din, N., Rashedy, S.H. (2023). Biodiversity of Seaweeds in the Mediterranean Sea. In: Biodiversity of Seaweeds in the Egyptian Marine Waters. Earth and Environmental Sciences Library. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-33366-8_1

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