Chapter 8
Seaweeds and Seagrasses: The Marine
Forests from the Alboran Sea
Antonio Flores-Moya, Diego Moreno, Julio De la Rosa, María Altamirano,
and Elena Bañares-España
8.1 Seaweeds and Seagrasses: Taxonomical Approach
and Ecological Role
While the term “seaweed” designates multicelled organisms from two different
kingdoms distributed among three different phyla (Rhodophyta, red algae, around
4000 species; Heterokontophyta, brown algae, around 1500 species, included in the
Kingdom Chromista; and Chlorophyta, green algae, around 700 species, included in
the Kingdom Plantae), the term “seagrass” includes a paraphyletic group of marine
angiosperms from the order Alismatales (Tracheophyta, Plantae; around 60 species).
It must be highlighted that the three groups of seaweeds have no common ancestor
and consequently they are considered as a polyphyletic group. In addition, some tuftforming blue-green algae (Cyanobacteria) are sometimes regarded as seaweeds.
Thus, “seaweed” and “seagrass” are not systematic terms, but they are extensively
used in marine botany and ecology to designate the macroscopic photosynthetic
organisms growing on marine substrates; they encompass the macroscopic, primary
producers of the benthos.
Macroalgae are very diverse in their morphology, life habits, and functional
diversity, and they shape the spatio-temporal physiognomy of the marine vegetation
A. Flores-Moya (*) · M. Altamirano · E. Bañares-España
Departamento de Botánica y Fisiología Vegetal, Universidad de Málaga, Málaga, Spain
e-mail: floresa@uma.es; altamirano@uma.es; elbaes@uma.es
D. Moreno
Agencia de Medio Ambiente y Agua, Consejería de Agricultura, Ganadería, Pesca y Desarrollo
Sostenible, Junta de Andalucía, Almería, Spain
e-mail: diego.moreno@juntadeandalucia.es
J. De la Rosa
Departamento de Botánica, Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain
e-mail: jdlarosa@ugr.es
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
J. C. Báez et al. (eds.), Alboran Sea - Ecosystems and Marine Resources,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65516-7_8
247
Seaweeds and Seagrasses: The Marine
Forests from the Alboran Sea
Antonio Flores-Moya, Diego Moreno, Julio De la Rosa, María Altamirano,
and Elena Bañares-España
8.1 Seaweeds and Seagrasses: Taxonomical Approach
and Ecological Role
While the term “seaweed” designates multicelled organisms from two different
kingdoms distributed among three different phyla (Rhodophyta, red algae, around
4000 species; Heterokontophyta, brown algae, around 1500 species, included in the
Kingdom Chromista; and Chlorophyta, green algae, around 700 species, included in
the Kingdom Plantae), the term “seagrass” includes a paraphyletic group of marine
angiosperms from the order Alismatales (Tracheophyta, Plantae; around 60 species).
It must be highlighted that the three groups of seaweeds have no common ancestor
and consequently they are considered as a polyphyletic group. In addition, some tuftforming blue-green algae (Cyanobacteria) are sometimes regarded as seaweeds.
Thus, “seaweed” and “seagrass” are not systematic terms, but they are extensively
used in marine botany and ecology to designate the macroscopic photosynthetic
organisms growing on marine substrates; they encompass the macroscopic, primary
producers of the benthos.
Macroalgae are very diverse in their morphology, life habits, and functional
diversity, and they shape the spatio-temporal physiognomy of the marine vegetation
A. Flores-Moya (*) · M. Altamirano · E. Bañares-España
Departamento de Botánica y Fisiología Vegetal, Universidad de Málaga, Málaga, Spain
e-mail: floresa@uma.es; altamirano@uma.es; elbaes@uma.es
D. Moreno
Agencia de Medio Ambiente y Agua, Consejería de Agricultura, Ganadería, Pesca y Desarrollo
Sostenible, Junta de Andalucía, Almería, Spain
e-mail: diego.moreno@juntadeandalucia.es
J. De la Rosa
Departamento de Botánica, Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain
e-mail: jdlarosa@ugr.es
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
J. C. Báez et al. (eds.), Alboran Sea - Ecosystems and Marine Resources,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65516-7_8
247