First record of Bonnemaisonia hamifera (Bonnemaisoniales, Rhodophyta) in the South Pacific, from the South Island of New Zealand

ABSTRACT

The tetrasporophytic ‘Trailliella’ stage of the red algal genus Bonnemaisonia is reported for the first time from the Southern Hemisphere. Here we describe a bloom of the tetrasporophyte of B. hamifera from the mouth of the Waikouaiti River, Karitāne, South Island, where it occurred as thousands of free-floating tufts up to 1 cm wide in shallow water, accumulated in windrows on sand banks and beaches, and in the water column at depths of 10–12 m on the adjacent open coast. Gametophytic stages have not yet been found in New Zealand. The material collected to date is strictly vegetative, and reproduction occurs via fragmentation. The identity of the New Zealand samples as B. hamifera was confirmed by both morphology and rbcL sequencing. The abundance and floating dispersal of B. hamifera suggests that it is invasive and will become widely distributed in New Zealand.

KEYWORDS:

• Bonnemaisoniales
• introductions
• invasive
• life histories
• South Island
• tetrasporophytes

Acknowledgements

We thank Becky Kerr and Kim Currie for additional field observations and temperature data, and Curt Pueschel for alerting us to the nature of the rhodophysin granules. Travel to New Zealand was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, Discovery Grant to DJG. We acknowledge funding from SSIF – NIWA to the Coasts & Oceans Centre, Programme 2. Sub-surface temperature data was collected as part of the MBIE-funded Coastal Acidification: Rate, Impacts and Management (CARIM) project and provided by Kim Currie (NIWA).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

David J. Garbary http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5126-6608

Roberta D’Archino http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7025-3255

Wendy A. Nelson http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0014-5560

Judy. E. Sutherland http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1722-8218

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada: RGPIN-2015-04828; SSIF – NIWA SSIF to the Coasts and Ocens Centre, Programme 2 (COBR1901/Algae); MBIE-funded Coastal Acifification: Rate, Impacts and Management (CARIM) project (CARI19301).