Collections of the invasive species Grateloupia turuturu (Halymeniales, Rhodophyta) from Tasmania, Australia

Abstract

G.W. Saunders and R.D. Withall. 2006. Collections of the invasive species Grateloupia turuturu (Halymeniales, Rhodophyta) from Tasmania, Australia. Phycologia 45: 711–714. DOI: 10.2216/06-10.1

Intertidal collections of morphologically variable red algal blades from Bicheno on the east coast of Tasmania, Australia, during two consecutive excursions (January 2004, 2005) were strongly reminiscent of alien populations of Grateloupia turuturu collected by the authors in Rhode Island, USA. Anatomical observations of vegetative and reproductive features in combination with molecular tools were used to confirm this identification and establish the first published record for this invasive species in Australian waters.

Key Words::

• Grateloupia turuturu
• Halymeniales
• Invasive species
• Large subunit rDNA
• Tasmania

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank Dr C. Yarish for providing samples from Waterford, Connecticut, J. Lewis for helpful discussions, two anonymous reviewers for helpful suggestions and T. Moore for generating the sequence data used here. C. Sanderson and N. Barrett generously assisted with fieldwork while the authors were in Tasmania. This research was funded by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and Canada Research Chair Program grants to GWS, as well as infrastructure support from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation.