Abstract
The 2007 flora “Green Seaweeds of Britain and Ireland” did not present the molecular data underpinning the Ulvaceae treatment, mostly ITS sequences. Subsequently, names have changed as type material of Ulva species is sequenced and intensive sampling with DNA barcoding adds new European species. To update the Ulvaceae, we systematically sampled from 2007 to 2021, identifying specimens using various molecular markers alongside DNA from type material of four species. We show here that Ulva gigantea, based on rbcL, tufA and ITS sequences of its holotype, is assigned to Ulva compressa, as is the lectotype of Ulva curvata. Ulva gigantea sensu GenBank and Ulva pseudocurvata are conspecific. The correct name is U. pseudocurvata based on rbcL sequences of the lectotype. Two species of monostromatic Ulvaceae were included in the 2007 flora, but we show that both of them and all earlier British monostromatic collections represent Ulvaria splendens, a species originally described from Alaska. Analysis of two rbcL amplicons of the Ulva sordida lectotype shows that it is conspecific with Ulvaria splendens. Our first genuine collections of Ulvaria obscura from SW England and SW Wales correspond to topotype material from the Bay of Biscay, recent samples from Galicia and unpublished tufA sequences from Britanny.
About the authors
Christine A. Maggs obtained her PhD with Mike Guiry in Galway for a project on maerl beds. While Professor of Phycology at Queen’s University Belfast she served five years as Head of School of Biological Sciences, then moved to Bournemouth University as Dean of Science & Technology. Most recently she was Chief Scientist of the JNCC and is now emeritus. Her principal research interest is the systematics of red and green seaweeds, in the context of conservation and sustainable exploitation.
Anne R. Bunker is a marine ecologist living in Pembrokeshire. She worked for the Field Studies Council at Orielton Field Centre, teaching marine ecology, before joining the Countryside Council for Wales (later Natural Resources Wales) as a Marine Conservation Officer. She is now a freelance consultant with a speciality in field work and marine algae. Anne is a co-author of the Seasearch Guide to the Seaweeds of Britain and Ireland.
Francis St. P. D. Bunker is a freelance marine biologist with his own company MarineSeen and is a director of Aquatic Survey and Monitoring Ltd. He is also a Visiting Research Fellow at Plymouth University. Francis designs, organises, and undertakes fieldwork projects around the UK on both the shore and in the shallow sublittoral, with a speciality in marine algae. He is currently Secretary of the British Phycological Society.
David Harries is a chemist who has pursued an interest in field mycology following retirement from a career in industry. His main interest is the application of DNA barcoding by members of the field community to complement their field and morphological studies on fungi and seaweeds. He plays a key role in support of a UK-wide fungus barcoding programme run by the British Mycological Society (BMS) and is currently Vice-President of the Society (2022–2024).
Jaanika Blomster, PhD, is a Senior University Lecturer in Aquatic Sciences at the University of Helsinki, Finland. Her current research is focused on molecular systematics and population genetics of green and brown macroalgae in the Baltic Sea, as well as on the bioactive compounds of cryptophyte algae. For more information, see http://www.helsinki.fi/algological-research.
Acknowledgments
We thank Patrik Frödén and Roxali Bijmoer at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden for graciously providing loans of the U. gigantea and U. sordida type materials for genetic study. We also thank Luna van der Loos from Ghent University for sharing a snippet of U. pseudocurvata for analysis. Sauvann Paulino and Luna van der Loos kindly shared sequences of Ulvaria obscura from Britanny, France. We thank Nava Carmel and her supervisor Alvaro Israel for providing sequences and morphological data for Ulva species from her project in Belfast. We also thank Paul Brazier (NRW) for supporting field surveys in Wales
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Research ethics: The authors confirm that this work complies with ethical standards in publishing and it has not been submitted for publication elsewhere.
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Author contributions: Christine Maggs conceived and led the study; John Kelly carried out most of the initial field sampling; Anne Bunker and Francis Bunker sampled in England and Wales and prepared the description and illustrations of Ulvaria obscura; David Harries, Jaanika Blomster and Pilar Díaz-Tapia carried out the DNA sequencing except for type specimens, which were sequenced by Jeffery Hughey and Frédéric Mineur; David Harries was responsible for phylogenetic analyses; and all authors except John Kelly, Jaanika Blomster and Frédéric Mineur wrote and edited the manuscript.
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Competing interests: The authors declare they have no conflicts of interest.
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Research funding: Field sampling in Ireland was carried out for the North South Shared Aquatic Resources (NS SHARE) project funded by the INTERREG IIIa programme. Genome and Sanger sequencing performed by JRH was funded by a private family trust from PWG. The 2005 collections were made during the NS SHARE project, which was funded by the European Union INTERREG IIIA programme for Ireland/Northern Ireland.
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Data availability: All sequences have been deposited in GenBank.
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Supplementary Material
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