The invasive kelp Undaria pinnatifida: a prominent Asian food source spreading in European waters

裙带菜（Undaria pinnatifida）是中国沿海沃茨中广泛栽培的一种海藻，在中国和日本（日本称裙带菜，中国称群带菜）都具有重要的营养价值。裙带菜通常在海水养殖设施中养殖，环境干扰和潜在的过度放养可能会降低年产量。同时，在其原生分布区之外，U.羽裂藻是一种迅速蔓延的入侵物种，有可能在竞争中战胜各自的本土海洋植物群。它在欧洲沃茨的北方分布限制目前在荷兰海岸线，预计不久将进一步扩散到德国湾。通过在海藻生物学领域享有盛誉的中国和德国研究团队的合作，将对这种具有全球意义的物种获得新的见解：我们将通过实验探索裙带菜对不断变化的环境参数（温度，辐射和营养物质）的反应，并利用这些信息预测其未来在欧洲沃茨的生物入侵能力。与此同时，将利用这一信息来改善其原产地的水产养殖技术。我们将在青岛和不莱梅的实验室进行协调实验，研究来自青岛和欧洲最北端的裙带菜种群的标本的管家生理生态过程，如光合作用，生长，繁殖。我们将研究环境变化对重要生理/生化参数的影响，如色素和脂肪酸组成，抗氧化能力，根皮单宁合成。在这项研究中，我们将包括所有不同的生活史阶段的裙带菜。我们将进一步比较各自的人口在两个网站的遗传特性应用国家的最先进的技术在人口遗传学。最后，我们将获得新的见解的范围扩大的机制，这在同一时间将允许更好的保护措施，对入侵者在欧洲沃茨和潜在的提高产量，并允许一个更可持续的种植（即通过减少肥料释放）沿着中国沿海。

The Asian kelp Undaria pinnatifida represents a seaweed species, which is extensively cultivated as food source in Chinese coastal waters and plays an important role in human nutrition in China and Japan ("wakame" in Japan, "qundaicai" in Chinese). Undaria is usually raised in mariculture facilities, where environmental perturbation and potentially overstocking might reduce the annual yield. At the same time, outside its native distributional range U. pinnatifida represents a rapidly spreading invasive species, with the potential to outcompete the respective native marine flora. It´s northern distributional limit in European waters is currently at the Dutch coastline and a further spread into the German Bight is to be expected soon. By the cooperation of a Chinese and German research team, which are both renowned in the field of seaweed biology, new insights will be gained on this species of global significance: We will experimentally explore Undaria´s responses to changing environmental parameters (temperature, radiation and nutrients) and use this information to predict its capacity for future bioinvasion in European waters. In parallel this information will be implemented to improve aquaculture techniques in its native range. We will conduct coordinated experiments in the laboratories in Qingdao and Bremen studying housekeeping ecophysiological processes like photosynthesis, growth, reproduction on specimens from the Qingdao and the northernmost European population of Undaria. We will study the effect of environmental changes on important physiological/biochemical parameters like pigment and fatty acid composition, antioxidative potential, phlorotannin synthesis. In this study we will include all different life-history stages of Undaria. We will furthermore compare the genetic identity of the respective population at both sites applying state-of-the-art techniques in population genetics. Conclusively we will gain new insights into the mechanisms of range expansion, which at the same time will allow for better protection measures against the invader in European waters and potentially improve yield and allow for a more sustainable cultivation (i.e. by less fertilizer release) along the coast of China.