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How reliable is morphological species delimitation in kelp? : a study of two closely related South African Ecklonia species

Includes bibliographical references.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Levy, Sarah Bernadette
Other Authors: Bolton, John J
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Biological Sciences 2015
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access_status_str Open Access
author Levy, Sarah Bernadette
author2 Bolton, John J
author_browse Bolton, John J
Levy, Sarah Bernadette
author_facet Bolton, John J
Levy, Sarah Bernadette
author_sort Levy, Sarah Bernadette
collection Thesis
description Includes bibliographical references.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/12923
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:43:59.604Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2015
publishDateRange 2015
publishDateSort 2015
publisher Department of Biological Sciences
publisherStr Department of Biological Sciences
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/12923 How reliable is morphological species delimitation in kelp? : a study of two closely related South African Ecklonia species Levy, Sarah Bernadette Bolton, John J Rothman, Mark D Marine Biology Includes bibliographical references. Ecklonia maxima and Ecklonia radiata are both kelp bed forming macroalgae along the South African coast, and the latter is also found in considerable abundance in Australia and New Zealand. Genetically they exist as two distinct species and can usually be differentiated morphologically, especially when occurring as geographically separate entities. However, they do appear to intergrade when growing together, where plants of apparent intermediate and indeterminate morphology have been observed. This study tested the reliability of morphology in separating these two Ecklonia species across their intraspecific range of morphological variation, from locations where the species co-occur, as well as where they appear in isolation in South Africa (both species) and Australia (E. radiata only). No individual characters reliably separated between species, yet overall size distinctions as well as the morphometric separation of hollow and solid-stiped sporophytes provide good evidence for morphological differentiation of E. radiata and E. maxima. While E. radiata clusters morphometrically, a distinction between Australian and South Africa specimens is observed. In localities where the two species are reported to co-exist morphological distinction is less clear, particularly in deep water at Buffels Bay. The blade morphology of these deep water sporophytes is distinct from both E. radiata and E. maxima across all locations, while overall size distinctions contribute most prominently to the morphological separation of E. radiata and E. maxima at De Hoop. Environmental data in combination with more detailed genetic analyses, especially those aimed at hybrid identification, are necessary to resolve the nature of these subtidal plants as well as to investigate the relationship between genetic differentiation and overlapping morphology in plants at De Hoop. 2015-05-27T04:10:12Z 2015-05-27T04:10:12Z 2014 Bachelor Thesis Honours BSc (Hons) http://hdl.handle.net/11427/12923 eng application/pdf Department of Biological Sciences Faculty of Science University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Marine Biology
Levy, Sarah Bernadette
How reliable is morphological species delimitation in kelp? : a study of two closely related South African Ecklonia species
thesis_degree_str Bachelor's / Honours
title How reliable is morphological species delimitation in kelp? : a study of two closely related South African Ecklonia species
title_full How reliable is morphological species delimitation in kelp? : a study of two closely related South African Ecklonia species
title_fullStr How reliable is morphological species delimitation in kelp? : a study of two closely related South African Ecklonia species
title_full_unstemmed How reliable is morphological species delimitation in kelp? : a study of two closely related South African Ecklonia species
title_short How reliable is morphological species delimitation in kelp? : a study of two closely related South African Ecklonia species
title_sort how reliable is morphological species delimitation in kelp a study of two closely related south african ecklonia species
topic Marine Biology
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/12923
work_keys_str_mv AT levysarahbernadette howreliableismorphologicalspeciesdelimitationinkelpastudyoftwocloselyrelatedsouthafricaneckloniaspecies