The Artsdatabanken Project «Avdekking av det rike, skjulte mangfaldet av mikrofilamentøse marine grønalgar (Project nr. 6-24)», which started last April, is a study of the taxonomy, phylogeny, and barcoding of microfilamentous marine green algae in Norway. These algae are very common but relatively unknown in the aquatic environment. In theory, any coastal organism can be associated with these small algae (<0.5 cm) as either epi- or endobionts . To accurately identify these algae, it is necessary to isolate and cultivate them, as most species have very simple morphologies, and several taxonomic features only appear when grown under specific environmental conditions. At NMBU, we have been able to isolate c. 220 cultures of microfilamentous green? algae from Norway, but even then, several species remain cryptic and require molecular methods for identification. As a result, there are large taxonomic, ecological and biogeographic knowledge gaps for Norway and by extension the rest of the world.
As an example, 12 species of Ulvella have previously been recorded in Norway. We have found eight of them so far, but we have also detected twelve additional species, seven of which appear to be undescribed.
To work towards resolving these knowledge gaps, we will use a combination of molecular approaches and analysis to resolve species identities and their taxonomic relationships. We are using chloroplast genome sequence data, which are known to provide well-resolved phylogenies of green algae. Once we have established the identity of these species, we will also be able to map their distribution with more confidence. This will give us a much better idea of the diversity and distribution of these little green algae and their hosts in Norway and how that relates to the rest of the world.