The Ecological Significance of Sexual Reproduction by Tropical Green Algae

The ability of scuba-equipped scientists to directly observe marine organisms in their natural environments has dramatically improved our understanding of marine ecological processes. Despite advances on numerous fronts, however, the basic ecology of many important groups, including the tropical green algae, remains relatively unstudied. This paper examines how aspects of sexual reproduction by these algae relate to their population dynamics and includes discussions of gamete formation, spatial dispersion of males and females, herbivory on fertile algae, the nature and timing of gamete release, fertilization success, and zygote dispersal. Further investigations into any of these topics promise to shed useful light on an ecologically important group of tropical seaweeds.