British coralline algae collection
Coralline algae specimens in the collection - crustose (left) and maerl (right). Photographed by J. Brodie.
Evidence from laboratory experiments (Kuffner et al. 2008) indicates that elevated seawater CO2 concentrations significantly inhibit recruitment and growth rates of coralline algae. Given that coralline algae species are major structural and ecological components of benthic communities, ocean acidification may have detrimental impacts on these habitats (Brodie et al., 2009).
The UK coralline algae collection at the Natural History Museum is well suited for research into biotic response to environmental change, including potentially ocean acidification, due to:
- ease of data accessibility
- occurrence maps
- extent of databasing
- new collection efforts
Possible caveats:
- Many specimens are intertidal in origin, which is not ideal for ocean acidification research.
- Taxonomy is not straightforward. It ideally requires DNA work, which can be difficult. Any studies aiming to do ocean acidification-type research need to take this into consideration.
Details
Organisms included:
Coralline algae
Timespan covered:
Mid-19th century to the present day. Specimens date back to 1856 and the latest specimens in the database are from 2004.
Collection location:
Cryptogamic Herbarium at the Natural History Museum, London.
Curation and collection management
Preservation and storage:
- Specimens - often attached to pieces of rock - are housed in small white boxes.
- All specimens are dry preserved.
Database information:
20,924 of the Museum's UK marine algal specimens have been databased, 3,667 (17.5%) are coralline species.
Specimen-level British coralline algae collection database Excel (826.0 KB)
Supporting information
For most species, occurrence maps and summaries of temporal sampling effort are available.
Related databases
Toolbox
References
- Brodie, J, Andersen, R, Kawachi, M and Millar, A J K (2009) Endangered algal species and how to protect them. Phycologia 48: 423-438.
- Kuffner, I B, Andersson, A J, Jokiel, P L, Rodgers, K S and Mackenzie, F T (2008) Decreased abundance of crustose coralline algae due to ocean acidification. Nature Geoscience 1: 114-117.