Comparative Morphology and Seasonality of Campylaephora borealis and C. crassa (Ceramiaceae, Rhodophyta)

doi:2005.20.4.325

Algae > Volume 20(4); 2005 > Article

Algae 2005;20(4): 325-331. doi: https://doi.org/10.4490/algae.2005.20.4.325

Kyung Suk Seo and Sung Min Boo^*¹

Department of Biology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843-3258, USA, and
¹Department of Biology, Chungnam National University, Daejon 305-764, Korea

ABSTRACT

Populations of Campylaephora borealis (Nakamura) Seo, Cho et Boo and C. crassa (Okamura) Nakamura show a year-around occurrence of all life-history stages. Such a concurrency of life-history stages produces problems in recognizing species in the field. Here, we invesitgated the morphological variation and life-history stages of both species using a statistical character analysis. Life-history stage was correlated with the seawater temperature in C. borealis, whereas it was dependant on biomass in C. crassa. Thalli had dichotomous branches with adaxial branchlets. The statistics showed that the seasonal change in morphology of C. borealis was significantly different from that of C. crassa in seven qualitative characters and five quantitative characters (p < 0.001), although six quantitative features including tetrasporangial size were similar in both species. The morphological difference between the two species may be due to the annual variation of branchlet number and the variance of branch subangle.

Key words: Campylaephora borealis, C. crassa, morphology, Rhodophyta, seasonality, statistical character analysis