Checklist of seaweeds of Al-Hoceima National Park of Morocco (Mediterranean Marine Protected Area)

Abstract

The Mediterranean basin is a marine biodiversity hot spot. Despite this, the macroalgal diversity of the Mediterranean Sea is still not fully known, especially in the Mediterranean Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) including, Al-Hoceima National Park of Morocco (PNAH). This paper provides the first comprehensive checklist of the seaweeds of PNAH, based chiefly on our own original collections, and complimented by literature records. Using present-day taxonomy, the total number of taxa at both specific and infraspecific levels currently accepted is 306 taxa with 207 Rhodophyta (39 families), 51 Ochrophyta (13 families) and 48 Chlorophyta (12 families). Ninety five of these species were not found in our samples, 93 were new to the PNAH, and the taxonomic identity of 26 taxa was amended. From the totality of taxa, ten species were reported for the first time from Morocco: 9 Rhodophyta and one green alga. Furthermore, 12 others species (10 red, 1 brown and 1 green alga) are new records for the Mediterranean coast of Morocco. Besides this, confirmed records are mentioned for 20 species, whether in Africa, in Morocco or in the Moroccan Mediterranean coast. This accessible checklist to the international community could serve as an infrastructure for future algal investigations of the taxa in this Specially Protected Area of Mediterranean Importance.

Seaweed farming in Africa: current status and future potential

“…Seaweed production in Senegal was reported recently (Gueye et al 2020), with an estimated 80-100 t (FW) being exported to Japan. Moussa et al (2018), working in the Al-Hoceima National Park, reported 306 algal taxa including 207 red, 51 brown and 48 green seaweed and stated that amongst these were records of 10 new species. In a more recent study, Bahammou et al ( 2021) reported 156 species from 35 families of Rhodophyta.…”

<i>Halopteris filicina</i> (PHAEOPHYCEAE: SPHACELARIALES), A NEW RECORD FOR MEXICO

“…In the Pacific, it has been reported from Chile (Ramírez & Santelices, 1991), Hawaii (Abbott & Huisman, 2004) and Japan (Yoshida et al, 2015). In the Atlantic, it is known from the Azores Islands (Tittley & Neto, 1994), the Scandinavian Peninsula (Athanasiadis, 1996), the Bahamas (Ballantine & Aponte, 2003), Florida (Dawes & Mathieson, 2008), Brazil (Menezes-Széchy & Paula, 2010), Spain (Afonso-Carrillo, 2014), the Great Britain (Bunker et al, 2017), Morocco (Moussa et al, 2018) and France (Burel et al, 2019). Furthermore, the species has been found in the Mediterranean: in Egypt (Aleem, 1993), Libya and Tunisia (Ribera et al, 1992), Malta (Cormaci et al, 1997), Slovenia (Rindi & Battelli, 2005), Israel (Einav & Israel, 2008), (Taskin et al, 2008), Spain (Joher et al, 2012), Greece (Tsiamis et al, 2013), Algeria (Ould-Ahmed et al, 2013), Cyprus (Tsiamis et al, 2014) and Italy (Bottalico et al, 2016).…”