Life strategy, ecophysiology and ecology of seaweeds in polar waters

Polar seaweeds are strongly adapted to the low temperatures of their environment, Antarctic species more strongly than Arctic species due to the longer cold water history of the Antarctic region. By reason of the strong isolation of the Southern Ocean the Antarctic marine flora is characterized by a high degree of endemism, whereas in the Arctic only few endemic species have been found so far. All polar species are strongly shade adapted and their phenology is finely tuned to the strong seasonal changes of the light conditions. The paper summarises the present knowledge of seaweeds from both polar regions with regard to the following topics: the history of seaweed research in polar regions; the environment of seaweeds in polar waters; biodiversity, biogeographical relationships and vertical distribution of Arctic and Antarctic seaweeds; life histories and physiological thallus anatomy; temperature demands and geographical distribution; light demands and depth zonation; the effect of salinity, temperature and desiccation on supraand eulittoral seaweeds; seasonality of reproduction and the physiological characteristics of C. Wiencke (&) Æ U. H. Lüder Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Am Handelshafen 12, D-27570 Bremerhaven, Germany e-mail: [email protected] M. N. Clayton School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, P.O Box 18, Melbourne, Victoria 3800, Australia I. Gómez Instituto de Biologı́a Marina, Universidad Austral de Chile, Casilla 567, Valdivia, Chile K. Iken Institute of Marine Science, University of Alaska Fairbanks, O’Neill Bldg., Fairbanks, AK 99775, USA C. D. Amsler Department of Biology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294-1170, USA U. Karsten Institute of Biological Sciences, Applied Ecology, University of Rostock, Albert-Einstein-Strasse 3, D-18051 Rostock, Germany D. Hanelt Biocenter Klein Flottbek, University of Hamburg, Ohnhorst-Str. 18, D-22609 Hamburg, Germany K. Bischof Institute for Polar Ecology, University of Kiel, Wischhofstr. 1–3, D-24148 Kiel, Germany K. Dunton Marine Science Institute, University of Texas at Austin, 750 Channel View Drive, Port Aransas, TX 78373, USA Rev Environ Sci Biotechnol DOI 10.1007/s11157-006-9106-z