Proceedings of the Second Mediterranean Symposium on Marine

CONTRIBUTE TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF MACROALGAL
BIODIVERSITY OF THE LIGURIAN COAST
Luisa MANGIALAJO 1 , Giuseppina BARBERIS and Riccardo CATTANEO VIETTI
Dipartimento per lo Studio del Territorio e delle sue Risorse, Università degli studi di Genova C.so Europa 26, 16132 GENOVA.
Author: Luisa Mangialajo, luisama@dipteris.unige.it
ABSTRACT
The macrophytobenthos <strong>of</strong> Liguria (North-Western <strong>Mediterranean</strong>) was object <strong>of</strong> various
studies in <strong>the</strong> past: bibliography anterior to 1950 enumerates more than 400 species
(as well as o<strong>the</strong>r intraspecific taxa). On <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r hand recent data concerning this region
are scarce and <strong>of</strong>ten published in grey literature. In <strong>the</strong> checklist <strong>of</strong> Italian
macrophytobenthos (Furnari et al., 2003), only 119 species are enumerated between
1950 and 2000. The present work reports new records for <strong>the</strong> area and contains
bibliography, herbaria and unpublished data. More than 50 entities are inedited
quotations. A comparison between actual and historical data is here carried out, showing
an increase <strong>of</strong> elements with warm affinities and a decrease <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> cold ones.
KEYWORDS: Macrophytobenthos, biodiversity, Liguria
INTRODUCTION
The macrophytobenthos <strong>of</strong> Liguria (North-Western
<strong>Mediterranean</strong>, Fig. 1) was object <strong>of</strong> various studies in <strong>the</strong>
19th century until <strong>the</strong> beginning <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 20th. Litterature
anterior to 1950 enumerates more than 400 species (and
o<strong>the</strong>r intraspecific taxa); most <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se being reported by
Ardissone & Strafforello (1877).
Recent data concerning this region are scarce, <strong>of</strong>ten being
published in grey literature. In <strong>the</strong> checklist <strong>of</strong> Italian
macrophytobenthos (Furnari et al., 2003), only 119 entities
are enumerated for Liguria between 1950 and 2000, 116
<strong>of</strong> which belong to Rhodophyta, Phaeophyta and
Chlorophyta, <strong>the</strong> only taxa considered in this study.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
Fig. 1: Liguria
The research <strong>of</strong> actual records from 1950 on was carried out in literature (Tortonese,
1958, 1961; 1962; Relini et al., 1986; Balduzzi et al. 1993; Cattaneo-Vietti et al., 2002;
Furnari et al., 2003), in Herbaria (GDOR, GE, HbMangialajo) and in <strong>the</strong> field. Historical
data were searched in <strong>the</strong> literature (Ardissone, 1883, 1886; Piccone, 1885; Ardissone
and Strafforello., 1887; Vinassa, 1891a, 1891b; Preda, 1904, 1917; Tosco, 1958) and in
Herbaria (GDOR, GE).
ACTES DU DEUXIEME SYMPOSIUM MEDITERRANEEN SUR LA VEGETATION MARINE (ATHENES, 12-13 DECEMBRE 2003)
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