Algae. 2005; 20(4): 369-377.
The Effect of Substrate on Ecophysiological Characteristics of Green Macroalga Ulva pertusa Kjellman (Chlorophyta)
Tae Seob Choi* and Kwang Young Kim
Department of Oceanography, Chonnam National University, Gwangju 500-757, Korea
ABSTRACT
Seashore joining with land and sea, which is typical habitat for marine macroalgae, is classified two types of shore as soft- and hard-bottom shore according to topographical (geological) and ecological features. We compared two of Ulva pertusa Kjellman from two contrasting habitats, sandy (soft-bottom, Haenam) and rocky shore (hard-bottom, Hadong) in terms of chlorophyll-a fluorescence and its parameters, and various photosynthetic pigment and nutrient content in the tissue of those. Both of habitats were different in the light environment such as light attenuation coefficient and even in nutrient concentration of ambient seawater. Electron transport rate (ETR) of Ulva from sandy shore was higher than from rocky shore. The range of photosynthetic pigment content in the tissue of U. pertusa was significantly much more in from sandy shore, and also nitrogen and phosphorus content were significantly higher except for carbon content. However, there were no significant differences in the ratio of among photosynthetic pigments, and N:P ratio was similar between each other, even though significantly different. Our result implied on the reason of why most of green tides in the worldwide concentrated and frequently occurred at sites with sandy, muddy and silty bottoms, being classified as soft-bottom shore.
Keywords :
chlorophyll-a fluorescence, sandy shore, rocky shore, Ulva pertusa, green tides
