Reproductive Strategies of Ceramium tenuicorne Near Its Inner Limit in the Brackish Baltic Sea
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L. Bergström
Abstract
The reproductive state of Ceramium tenuicorne (Kütz.) WӦrn was studied in a salinity and latitudinal gradient near its inner distribution limit in the brackish Baltic Sea, and in laboratory growth experiments on the gametophytes and tetrasporophytes. Along the gradient, a strong reduction in sexual reproduction and an increased tetrasporophyte dominance were observed. The observed changes may not only be explained by salinity constraints. Growth occurred between 1 and 24 PSU and the optimum range for growth corresponded well to the salinity regime of the area studied. Field observations showed that sexual reproduction is at least occasionally possible in salinities around 4 PSU. It is likely that severed climatic conditions constrain sexual reproduction towards the north, but C. tenuicorne remains an ecologically dominant species in large parts of its distributional area. Viable populations are maintained essentially by vegetative reproduction, such as fragmentation and rhizoidal re-attachment. Observations on vegetative propagules were sparse, but these may serve as an important physical escape from temporarily unfavourable conditions in areas where sexual reproduction is unreliable.
Copyright © 2003 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG
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- Reproductive Strategies of Ceramium tenuicorne Near Its Inner Limit in the Brackish Baltic Sea
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- Influence of the Plume of the River Po on the Distribution of Subtidal Microphytobenthos in the Northern Adriatic Sea
- Structural Analysis of Carrageenan from Farmed Varieties of Philippine Seaweed
- Morphology and Nuclear Small-subunit rDNA Sequences of Ishige (Ishigeaceae, Phaeophyceae) and its Phylogenetic Relationship among Selected Brown Algal Orders
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- Meetings
Articles in the same Issue
- Comparative Morphology and Taxonomy of Sphacelaria Species with Tribuliform Propagules (Sphacelariales, Phaeophyceae)
- Reproductive Strategies of Ceramium tenuicorne Near Its Inner Limit in the Brackish Baltic Sea
- Dinoflagellate Cysts in Recent Sediments from Bahía Concepción, Gulf of California
- Occurrence of Carrageenan Structure in an Agar from the Red Seaweed Digenea simplex (Wulfen) C. Agardh (Rhodomelaceae, Ceramiales) with a Short Review of Carrageenan-Agarocolloid Hybrid in the Florideophycidae
- An Updated and Annotated List of Marine Brown Algae (Phaeophyceae) of the Caribbean Coast of the Republic of Panama
- Influence of the Plume of the River Po on the Distribution of Subtidal Microphytobenthos in the Northern Adriatic Sea
- Structural Analysis of Carrageenan from Farmed Varieties of Philippine Seaweed
- Morphology and Nuclear Small-subunit rDNA Sequences of Ishige (Ishigeaceae, Phaeophyceae) and its Phylogenetic Relationship among Selected Brown Algal Orders
- A Molecular Investigation of Mazzaella (Gigartinales, Rhodophyta) Morphologically Intermediate Between Mazzaella linearis and M. splendens
- Meetings
