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A biogeographic analysis of the seaweed flora of the west coast of southern Africa, from Lüderitz to Cape Agulhas

A biogeographic analysis of the seaweed flora of the area from Lüderitz to Cape Agulhas was undertaken. Biogeographic patterns were reviewed across 15 geographic regions. A TWINSPAN analysis showed a clear division of the area into two separate species communities. These two communities are the Beng...

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Main Author: Anderson, Pippin
Other Authors: Bolton, John J
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Biological Sciences 2017
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access_status_str Open Access
author Anderson, Pippin
author2 Bolton, John J
author_browse Anderson, Pippin
Bolton, John J
author_facet Bolton, John J
Anderson, Pippin
author_sort Anderson, Pippin
collection Thesis
description A biogeographic analysis of the seaweed flora of the area from Lüderitz to Cape Agulhas was undertaken. Biogeographic patterns were reviewed across 15 geographic regions. A TWINSPAN analysis showed a clear division of the area into two separate species communities. These two communities are the Benguela province, and the western overlap region between the Benguela and Agulhas provinces. The western overlap region was found to be the most diverse. Diversity was shown to decrease with a decrease in latitude. Patterns in endemism among the brown seaweeds follow this trend. In contrast to this, red and green endemics increase with a decrease in latitude. Shore distribution patterns were reviewed, and demonstrated an increase in diversity with a progression down the shore. Among the red seaweeds, this increase, with greater depth was considerable. Species distribution patterns in both shore and shore pool zones were found to follow the same pattern, except for a drop in species in the subtidal fringe pools, which this study concluded was a meaningless concept. These results have been reviewed in relation to present conservation areas along this shore, and future recommendations were made for location of sites for the conservation of seaweed. These were the formation of reserves between Lüderitz and Port Nolloth, between Yzerfontein and Melkbosstrand, and from Scarborough to Cape Hangklip. In some of these areas existing reserves need to make policy adjustments while in others reserves need to be established for the conservation of both diversity and uniqueness of seaweed species.
format Thesis
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:33:48.261Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2017
publishDateRange 2017
publishDateSort 2017
publisher Department of Biological Sciences
publisherStr Department of Biological Sciences
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source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/26388 A biogeographic analysis of the seaweed flora of the west coast of southern Africa, from Lüderitz to Cape Agulhas Anderson, Pippin Bolton, John J Marine Biology Plant Ecology Botany A biogeographic analysis of the seaweed flora of the area from Lüderitz to Cape Agulhas was undertaken. Biogeographic patterns were reviewed across 15 geographic regions. A TWINSPAN analysis showed a clear division of the area into two separate species communities. These two communities are the Benguela province, and the western overlap region between the Benguela and Agulhas provinces. The western overlap region was found to be the most diverse. Diversity was shown to decrease with a decrease in latitude. Patterns in endemism among the brown seaweeds follow this trend. In contrast to this, red and green endemics increase with a decrease in latitude. Shore distribution patterns were reviewed, and demonstrated an increase in diversity with a progression down the shore. Among the red seaweeds, this increase, with greater depth was considerable. Species distribution patterns in both shore and shore pool zones were found to follow the same pattern, except for a drop in species in the subtidal fringe pools, which this study concluded was a meaningless concept. These results have been reviewed in relation to present conservation areas along this shore, and future recommendations were made for location of sites for the conservation of seaweed. These were the formation of reserves between Lüderitz and Port Nolloth, between Yzerfontein and Melkbosstrand, and from Scarborough to Cape Hangklip. In some of these areas existing reserves need to make policy adjustments while in others reserves need to be established for the conservation of both diversity and uniqueness of seaweed species. 2017-11-17T10:09:21Z 2017-11-17T10:09:21Z 1996 2017-02-01T13:26:22Z Bachelor Thesis Honours BSc (Hons) http://hdl.handle.net/11427/26388 eng application/pdf Department of Biological Sciences Faculty of Science University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Marine Biology
Plant Ecology
Botany
Anderson, Pippin
A biogeographic analysis of the seaweed flora of the west coast of southern Africa, from Lüderitz to Cape Agulhas
thesis_degree_str Bachelor's / Honours
title A biogeographic analysis of the seaweed flora of the west coast of southern Africa, from Lüderitz to Cape Agulhas
title_full A biogeographic analysis of the seaweed flora of the west coast of southern Africa, from Lüderitz to Cape Agulhas
title_fullStr A biogeographic analysis of the seaweed flora of the west coast of southern Africa, from Lüderitz to Cape Agulhas
title_full_unstemmed A biogeographic analysis of the seaweed flora of the west coast of southern Africa, from Lüderitz to Cape Agulhas
title_short A biogeographic analysis of the seaweed flora of the west coast of southern Africa, from Lüderitz to Cape Agulhas
title_sort biogeographic analysis of the seaweed flora of the west coast of southern africa from luderitz to cape agulhas
topic Marine Biology
Plant Ecology
Botany
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/26388
work_keys_str_mv AT andersonpippin abiogeographicanalysisoftheseaweedfloraofthewestcoastofsouthernafricafromluderitztocapeagulhas
AT andersonpippin biogeographicanalysisoftheseaweedfloraofthewestcoastofsouthernafricafromluderitztocapeagulhas