Meeting Abstract
Many coral reef restoration efforts fail to address the natural ecosystem processes necessary for the long-term persistence of reefs. Crustose coralline algae (CCA) have been shown to play many essential ecological roles on reefs including facilitating coral recruitment and contributing to reef calcification. Despite their demonstrated significance, little is known about the diversity of these algae on reefs. Understanding the systematics of CCA has largely been limited by their cryptic taxonomy which relies on specialized morphological features difficult to discern without a microscope. Here we provide an accessible morphological and molecular characterization of the Caribbean CCA, and evaluate hypotheses of CCA relationships through the phylogeny of these Caribbean species. Using the genetic marker psbA, we found that despite morphological similarities, Titanoderma prototypum is distinct from Lithoperella atlantica. Further, the diagnostic significance of secondary pit structures within the family Lithophylloideae (Lithophyllum spp. and Titanoderma spp.) was verified by scanning electron microscopy. We found that psbA was diagnostic for each species, so it can serve as a genetic barcode for Caribbean CCA and will be assembled into a database as a foundation for identifying CCA species. We will also compile these morphological details and live photographs into a guidebook that can be used by researchers to identify CCA species in the field, with the hope of furthering the study and restoration of these critical reef plants.
