New records of benthic marine algae from isla Cozumel, Mexico: Phaeophyta and Chlorophyta

Waters off the island of Cozumel on the east coast of the Yucatán peninsula in Mexico were investigated using SCUBA. Species recorded here supplement earlier reports of seaweeds collected in shallow water from this Caribbean island. Twenty-three taxa of Phaeophyta and 72 Chlorophyta were collected. We record for the first time on Cozumel ten species of Phaeophyta and 24 species, three varieties and four forms of Chlorophyta. Four of the brown algal records and 16 of the green algal records are new records for Mexico. Collections of Onslowia bahamaensis are the first outside of the Bahamas where it was originally described in 1978. The reports of Entocladia ventriculosa, Penicillus dumestosus f. expansus, and P. pyriformis f. explanatus are the first since Børgesen's original description of them from the Virgin Islands early in the century. We also report Trichosolen blomquistii for the first time outside of Puerto Rico. The reports of Rhipiliopsis profunda from 27-30 m are by far the shallowest depths in which this deep-water alga has been collected and are the only records of this species outside of the Bahamas, where it was originally described, and Puerto Rico.

Duke Scholars

Author Richard B. Searles Biology