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 are likely to be selected for. However, it is ver...

Photoinhibition of photosynthesis and its recovery was investigated in the laboratory and in the field with fluorescence and oxygen measuring devices. Photosynthetic efficiency measured at non-saturating fluence rates and the ratio of variable fluorescence to maximal fluorescence (FJF,) showed an approximately inverse course compared to the fluence rate of daylight measured continuously during ...

Phycobiliproteins, the main polypeptidic components of the phycobilisomes (PBS), are biological macromolecules arranged in complex interaction systems to perform light harvesting and conduction. The optical properties of these systems can hardly be studied by conventional spectroscopic techniques. Furthermore this techniques also involve laborious chemical extraction methods. Photoacoustic (PA)...

A new species of the red algal genus Gelidium, G. omanense M.J. Wynne, is described from the Sultanate of Oman, northern Arabian Sea. This species is a very commonly occurring eulittoral seaweed on the Omani coast, essentially one of the dominant species during the summertime southwest monsoon on exposed rocky shores. Its distribution is from Dhofar (southern Oman) in the west to Masirah Island...

Macrophyta are the initial link introducing toxic mercury to the trophic chain. Research was carried out at 24 stations located within the Polish coastal zone of the Southern Baltic, in the years 2006-2012. Fifteen taxa were collected, belonging to four phyla: green algae (Chlorophyta), brown algae (Phaeophyta), red algae (Rhodophyta) and flowering vascular plants (Angiospermophyta), and total ...

Prof. Xiao’s current research focuses on the biological evolution and environmental changes in the Proterozoic Eon (2500 to 543 million years ago). He has been working on some of the most important and exquisitely preserved microfossils from the ca. 600-million-year-old Doushantuo Formation in South China. These microfossils include multicellular red algae and animal embryos at successive cleav...

Species of the genus Mastocarpus exhibit two distinct life cycles, a sexual alternation of generations and an obligate, asexual direct life cycle that produces only female upright fronds. In the intertidal red alga, M. papillatus (Kützing) sexual fronds dominate southern populations and asexual fronds dominate northern populations along the northeast Pacific coast, a pattern of spatial separati...

Consumer growth and reproductive capacity are direct functions of diet. Strongylocentrotid sea urchins, the dominant herbivores in California kelp forests, strongly prefer giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera), but are highly catholic in their ability to consume other species. The biomass of Macrocystis fluctuates greatly in space and time, and the extent to which urchins can use alternate species ...

Water-soluble sulfated polysaccharides isolated from two red algae Sphaerococcus coronopifolius (Gigartinales, Sphaerococcaceae) and Boergeseniella thuyoides (Ceramiales, Rhodomelaceae) collected on the coast of Morocco inhibited in vitro replication of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) at 12.5 μg/mL. In addition, polysaccharides were capable of inhibiting the in vitro replication of Herpe...

Crude extracts and column fractions from the red algae Asparagopsis taxiformis and A. armata from the Strait of Messina (Italy) were screened for the production of antimicrobial compounds. Extracts from both species revealed remarkable antiprotozoal activity against Leishmania, revealing such algae as a great source of natural antiprotozoal products.