Structure and dynamics of the algal understorey in a kelp community at Cape Hangklip, Western Cape, South Africa
The objective of this thesis is to describe the composition and distributional variation of, and environmental factors influencing, the bottom canopy assemblages in a southern African kelp community at Cape Hangklip, Western Cape, South Africa. A detailed collection of intertidal and subtidal marine macroalgal species from the Cape Hangklip area, a site centrally located in the south coast/west coast overlap, yielded a list of 201 species (26 Chlorophyta, 24 Phaeophyta, 150 Rhodophyta). The list of taxa .included four new records for southern Africa (Aphanocladia cf. skottsbergii, Audouinella endophytica, Centroceras distichum and Grate/oupia doryphora), five undescribed species (Antithamnion sp., Colaconema sp.,, Erythrocladia sp., Erythrog/ossum sp. and Pterosiphonia sp.) and one rhodophyte of uncertain affinity (cf. Ceramiaceae indet.), probably representing a new genus in the Ceramiaceae.
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