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Abstract
González A.V., Chacana, M.E. and Silva P.C. 2012. Codium bernabei sp. nov. (Bryopsidales, Chlorophyta), a coalescing green seaweed from the coast of Chile. Phycologia 51: 666–671. DOI: 10.2216/12-025.1
Many intertidal rocky habitats of the Chilean coast were dominated by the dark green thalli of a mat-forming Codium. This green seaweed was ecologically important because it formed a permanent belt by coalescence between conspecific thalli, and thus it affected substrate dominance and community structure. Six species of mat-forming Codium have been recorded in Chile; the adherent Codium in central and northern Chile has been recognized as C. dimorphum, a species first described from the Guaitecas Islands in southern Chile. We analyzed 320 Codium specimens collected from 11 sites spanning the entire Chilean coastline. Morphological and rbcL sequence data revealed the presence of two distinct species with non-overlapping geographical distributions. Codium dimorphum, which is characterized by dimorphic utricles (inner utricles having thin apical walls, and outer utricles having thick apical walls), was found to be restricted to the southern Chilean coast. Specimens from central and northern Chile with uniform utricles were described as a new species, C. bernabei.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This study was part of the Ph.D. thesis of Alejandra González at the Universidad de Chile directed by Dr. Bernabé Santelices (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile). She gives thanks for the Doctoral Fellowship from CONICYT (Grant AT-4040047), including the financial support for a trip to Station Biologique de Roscoff, France (March–April 2006). She also thanks A. Conley, J. Beltrán, C. Figueroa, C. Camus, M. Hengst, V. Oppliger and V. Flores for all the help in the field and laboratory. Discussions on methods and concepts with Drs M. Valero, S. Faugeron, C. Botto, J. Correa and R. Medel are acknowledged with gratitude. Financial support for publication was obtained from the grant FONDECYT 11110120 (AG).