Catalogue of marine brown algae (Phaeophyta) of New South Wales, including Lord Howe Island, south-western Pacific

Abstract

This catalogue lists 139 species (in 12 orders, 26 families and 63 genera) of brown algae from New South Wales and Lord Howe Island. More than half (71) are endemic to Australia, with the remainder being very widely distributed (e.g. Europe, the Americas and Asia); 28 species have New South Wales type localities (14 from the mainland and 14 from Lord Howe Island). As a result of extensive searching of archival records, the exact locality of many 'Nov. Holl.' types is deduced to be the Sydney region of New South Wales. Four genera (Austronereia, Nemacystis, Nereia and Tomaculopsis) and 10 species are newly recorded, six species being new to the Australian continent. The largest genus represented is Sargassum, for which 37 species have been recorded, including 10 based on local types. Eleven of these Sargassum records are eliminated, the remaining 26 are in urgent need of regional monographic treatment. Eclipsed only by the Fucales (39 species in 9 genera), the order Dictyotales with 36 species in 13 genera, is the dominant group in terms of cover and possibly biomass along the mainland and at Lord Howe Island from low intertidal habitats to to depths of at least 35 m. In many areas of the seabed, brown algae and the cmstose corallines seem to be especially resilient to grazing by the sea-urchin Centrostephanis rodgersii which is presently besieging this coast.