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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Evolutionary Biology, Biogeography and Species Diversity
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2024.1415034

DNA barcoding reveals an extensive number of cryptic introductions of bladed Bangiales (Rhodophyta) in the Southern North Sea

Provisionally accepted
Jessica Knoop Jessica Knoop 1*Silke Bouckenooghe Silke Bouckenooghe 1Luna Van Der Loos Luna Van Der Loos 1Sofie D'Hondt Sofie D'Hondt 1Mart Karremans Mart Karremans 2Frank Perk Frank Perk 2Frederik Leliaert Frederik Leliaert 3Olivier De Clerck Olivier De Clerck 1
  • 1 Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
  • 2 ANEMOON Foundation, Bennebroek, Netherlands
  • 3 Botanic Garden Meise, Brussels, Belgium

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Using a DNA barcoding approach, we document an extensive number of inter-species cryptic introductions of bladed Bangiales (Pyropia) at an historic oyster aquaculture site in the Southern North Sea. We sampled the intertidal of 20 locations along the Belgian and Dutch coastline, ranging from sheltered to exposed, between February 2022 and April 2023 for bladed Bangiales. 230 individuals of bladed Bangiales were collected, morphological and ecological characteristics described and identified based on chloroplast rbcL gene sequences, revealing the presence of 13 species belonging to the genera Porphyra and Pyropia. While seven species (P. dioica, P. linearis, P. purpurea, P. umbilicalis, Py. collinsii, Py. elongata, Py. leucosticta) are regarded as native to the Northeast Atlantic, four species (Py. katadae, Py. koreana, Py. kinositae and Py. yezoensis) are considered non-indigenous. The records of Py. katadae, Py. kinositae and Py. koreana are the first confirmed observations for the Northeast Atlantic region. In addition, we identified two distinct rbcL clades, for which a definite species identification could not be established due to a lack of matching reference sequences. Species diversity was generally higher during winter and at exposed sites facing the open North Sea. The surprisingly high species diversity of the bladed Bangiales could only be revealed by molecular identification -a crucial tool for reliable species identification in this group of organisms.

    Keywords: RBCL, Porphyra, Pyropia, diversity, non-indigenous species, invasive species Language style: The manuscript is written in British English

    Received: 09 Apr 2024; Accepted: 22 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Knoop, Bouckenooghe, Van Der Loos, D'Hondt, Karremans, Perk, Leliaert and De Clerck. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Jessica Knoop, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

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