Unsuspected eukaryotic life inhabits rhodolith-forming coralline algae (Hapalidiales, Rhodophyta), a remarkable marine benthic microhabitat

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Rhodoliths are unattached crust-forming marine macroalgae (seaweeds) called corallines that are common in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico and they are the main foundation for the attachment of other marine life at 45-90 meter depth. This research will significantly increase our knowledge of algal diversity. It will also assess whether rodoliths may function as temporary reservoirs for life history stages of ecologically and economically important microalgae (seedbanks), or as a safe refuge for species following environmental stress. The findings will open the door to assess the universality of bloom-forming microalgae, some of which are of public health concerns, and are found inside rhodoliths in marine ecosystems around the world. This project will provide training opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students as well as a post-doctoral researcher and high school students, with attention to underrepresented groups. Additionally, the investigators will develop unique outreach programs for the public, and will make all data collected available to the scientific community and the general public to enable broad-scale comparative analyses and integration with other data sets. These products will be important for the fields of marine algal biology, ecology, fisheries and biotourism.The research will characterize the rhodolith microhabitat biota with plastid tufA, 16S V4 and 23S UPA metabarcoding (amplicon-based environmental sequencing) assays specifically targeting primary producers using high-throughput sequencing against reference datasets. The study will also augment reference datasets for various molecular markers through Sanger sequencing of Gulf algae for facilitated identification of taxa recovered in the metabarcoding assays. In addition, monographic research of various groups of algae and an illustrated field guide of rhodolith-associated phototrophs will be produced.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.