Dear Colleagues,
When studying algae species, is there any standard points to take into account (depth, area...) to make a complete and good inventory (mediterranean sea)?
Thank you
Identify species, environmental sunlight level, nutrient content of water (oligo- or eu-trophic, etc.), saltwater or freshwater level, etc. :)
To carry out an inventory of macroalgae, there is no particular protocol. Random sampling should be carried out without delimiting biotopes. It is also necessary to make several surveys per year to take account of the seasons variations. Surveys must be made along a transect between the upper mesolittoral and the upper infralittoral.
I agree with Dr. Andrew Paul McKenzie Pegman, the environmental conditions are important to know, you will use it later to explain the increase or decrease of your species numbers and communities.
Besides the above, take into account the different substrata available in the study area; also what life forms are you considering, i.e., microalgae and/or macroalgae, and also that inventory and species list are not the same. An inventory includes abundnaces for each taxon. Anyway it is a handful!
I agree with all of the above. I might add for substrata that sessile invertebrates such as barnacles and mussels could be included to describe the habitat. A point-intercept technique for abundance data be a useful tool as well. And if possible, obtaining elevations relative to the mean lower low water level would allow you to tie in the environmental conditions to where you found a particular alga.
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