Algae of Australia: Marine Benthic Algae of North-western Australia, 2. Red Algae

摘要

This is the eighth volume published in the Algae of Australia series, and the third by John, following on from his 2006 Nemaliales and his 2015 Marine Benthic Algae of North-western Australia, 1. Green and Brown Algae. All are superb accounts of these groups of macroalgal species and this new volume, the largest of the three, is no exception.The macroalgal diversity across the northern coastlines of Australia was long considered extremely depauperate relative to the southern coastline, but this was due to the poor knowledge of this marine flora, rather than an absence of species. For reasons that I, one with a passion for macroalgae (and particularly the reds), fail to understand, the majority of tropical marine biologists have been inexplicably distracted by the garish fish, coral and other invertebrates. But now, largely through the work of John on the west coast, and his mentor Gerry Kraft on the east coast, together with their students and colleagues, the unrecognised richness of the northern marine flora is now recognised. In this book John describes 158 genera and 351 species of benthic red algae from the north-western Australian coast, which adds to the 110 green and 61 brown species described in his previous volume. 7 genera and 88 species of reds are described as new.