Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.2001, Page 22

26
THE BANGIOPHYTE SPECIES OF THE FAROE ISLANDS
the conspicuous blade phase and the incon-
spicuous microscopic shell boring concho-
celis phase. The conchocelis was originally
described as a separate species, Conchoce-
lis rosea Batters (Batters, 1892). In sexual
reproduction, male gametangia and female
gametes develop either on the same blade
or on separate blades. After fertilisation,
zygotosporangia release zygotospores that
germinate into the diploid filamentous con-
chocelis phase. This phase develops con-
chosporangial branches with sporangia
from which conchospores are released.
These develop into the haploid blade phase.
Asexual reproduction has also been report-
ed and different species have the capacity
to develop a variety of different spore types
(for terminology see Nelson etai, 1999). It
has also been proposed that some spores
from the blade phase can produce haploid
conchocelis filaments (Kornmann, 1994)
and there is some evidence of this from
chromosome counts in Porphyra dioica
(Holmes, pers. comm.). Recently, the use
of molecular techniques has made it possi-
ble to obtain a much better understanding
of the taxonomy of Porphyra at the species
level (e.g. Brodie etal., 1996; 1998). Mole-
cular data also indicate that Bangia atrop-
urpurea from Denmark and the British
Isles are closely related to Porphyra (Bro-
die et al., 1998; see also Miiller et ai,
1998).
This paper presents a list of bangiophyte
species known for the Faroe Islands, sup-
plemented with annotations to characterise
the species and help with identification. For
more detailed descriptions of most species
see Brodie and Irvine (2002).
Material and methods
Algae were collected selectively by hand at
265 stations from the littoral to 25 m depth.
Sublittoral collections were by Scuba div-
ing. Collections were made at all seasons,
but less in the winter months. The localities
visited were on most of the larger islands
and included places at the open coasts with
different exposure to waves and more or
less sheltered places in the fjords. Informa-
tion about the localities with details of col-
lection dates, depth and geographical coor-
dinates for each station are available in
Sørensen et ai (2001), while a map show-
ing the locations of the stations is available
in Nielsen and Gunnarsson (2001). The
material was examined fresh when possi-
ble, and for some collections after preser-
vation in 2% formalin and stored in a deep
freezer for one to several months. Speci-
mens in shells and other calcified material
were decalcified over night in a 5% acetic
acid/water solution. Permanent slide prepa-
rations were mounted in KARO® (corn
syrup). Voucher specimens are kept in the
Botanical Museum, Copenhagen (C) with
duplicate collections in the Faroese Muse-
um of Natural History, Tórshavn and the
Marine Research Institute, Reykjavik, Ice-
land. Molecular analyses were applied to
confirm some of the identifications. The
procedure was the same as used by Brodie
et al. (1996; 1998). Names not in current
use but applied by Simmons (1897), Børge-
sen (1902) and Irvine (1982) are given. Au-
thor names are abbreviated according to
Brummit and Powell (1992).