Background

Floristic knowledge of the diversity of Arctic macroalgae (seaweeds) and their eukaryotic pathogens (fungi, oomycetes, plasmodiophoraleans) is very scarce, particularly in the American Arctic. Furthermore, the lack of an inventory of such species for the region appears as a particularly serious deficit.

Macroalgae of the Arctic region are considered to be very sensitive to a reduction in ice coverage, because the life histories of many macroalgae are regulated by temperature and photo-regimes, and furthermore the periodical scarring of the rocks by ice is essential for the recruitment of some taxa. Macroalgae are an essential element of the coastal ecosystems, and the degradation of macroalgal vegetation communities affects the entire ecosystem in an area.

Objectives of the expedition

The objective of this SAMS-led project is to establish an inventory of the diversity of seaweeds and their pathogens in several distinctive Arctic environments, identified to broadly represent a general high Arctic marine environment. This constitutes the culmination of several decades of research by Prof. Robert T. Wilce (University of Massachusetts, Amherst).

The expedition to north Baffin Island (Nunavut, Canada) in August 2009 will aim to obtain:

(1) culturable, viable isolates and
(2) suitably preserved material
of Arctic macroalgae (seaweeds) and their eukaryotic pathogens for molecular biology and electron microscopic work.

After the expedition, live isolates of macroalgae and their pathogens will be studied in the state-of-the-art facilities at the Culture Collection of Algae and Protozoa at the Scottish Association for Marine Science (Oban, UK) and at the Kobe University Macroalgal Culture Collection (Japan). Isolates will be investigated by established microscopic and molecular biological techniques. Besides this, we aim to undertake molecular approaches to characterize the largely unknown diversity of seaweed-associated, eukaryotic pathogens.