Geographic morphological and genetic variation in Xiphophora gladiata (Fucales, Phaeophyta)

TL;DRAbstract

Previous studies of two species of Northern Hemisphere algae (Ricus spp., Fucales, Phaeophyta), have shown that the geographical expression of their morphological variation takes the form of a fine-scale mosaic super-imposed on weak clines. Over 80% of the morphological variation (excluding between individuals differences) was expressed over a scale of less than 10 km. This work is here extended to the Tasmanian endemic alga Xiphophora gladiata (Fucales, Phaeophyta) and to still finer geographic scales (100's of kilometres to centimetres). Pattern analysis of the distribution of X. gladiata showed that, within its major beds, it grows in pronounced clumps (typically 10 cm in diameter and 15-25 cm apart), which formed the primary units for morphological analyses. 30 characters were measured on each of 2488 plants from-14 sites around Tasmania. Multivariate and univariate analyses of these data showed that the clumps differ markedly in morphology but that there are only limited differenc

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