''Saccharina dentigera'' is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

brown algae Brown algae (singular: alga), comprising the class Phaeophyceae, are a large group of multicellular algae, including many seaweeds located in colder waters within the Northern Hemisphere. Brown algae are the major seaweeds of the temperate and po ...

(class Phaeophyceae), in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Laminariaceae Laminariaceae is a family of brown algal seaweed Seaweed, or macroalgae, refers to thousands of species of macroscopic, multicellular, marine algae. The term includes some types of '' Rhodophyta'' (red), ''Phaeophyta'' (brown) and ''Chlor ...

. It is native to shallow water in the northeastern Pacific Ocean from the

Gulf of Alaska The Gulf of Alaska (Tlingit: ''Yéil T'ooch’'') is an arm of the Pacific Ocean defined by the curve of the southern coast of Alaska, stretching from the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island in the west to the Alexander Archipelago in the east, ...

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

Taxonomy

This seaweed was first described in 1889 by the Swedish botanist

Frans Reinhold Kjellman Frans Reinhold Kjellman (4 November 1846 – 22 April 1907) was a Swedish botanist who specialized in marine phycology and is known in particular for his work on Arctic algae. Kjellman became a Ph.D. and docent of botany at the Universit ...

as ''Laminaria dentigera'', the type location being

Bering Island Bering Island (russian: о́стров Бе́ринга, ''ostrov Beringa'') is located off the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Bering Sea. Description At long by wide, it is the largest and westernmost of the Commander Islands, with an area of . ...

, where it was said to be fairly abundant, scattered across the sublittoral zone. In a revision of the genus ''

Laminaria ''Laminaria'' is a genus of brown seaweed in the order Laminariales (kelp), comprising 31 species native to the north Atlantic and northern Pacific Oceans. This economically important genus is characterized by long, leathery laminae and relativ ...

'' by C.E.Lane, C.Mayes, Druehl and G.W.Saunders in 2005, the species was transferred to the genus ''

Saccharina ''Saccharina'' is a genus of 24 species of Phaeophyceae (brown algae). It is found in the north Atlantic Ocean and the northern Pacific Ocean at depths from 8 m to 30 m (exceptionally to 120 m in the warmer waters of the Mediterran ...

'', becoming ''Saccharina dentigera''.

Description

''Saccharina dentigera'' is a large brown seaweed growing to a length of . The

thallus Thallus (plural: thalli), from Latinized Greek (), meaning "a green shoot" or "twig", is the vegetative tissue of some organisms in diverse groups such as algae, fungi, some liverworts, lichens, and the Myxogastria. Many of these organisms wer ...

is dark brown, thick and leathery, often appearing palmate because of being split into broad lobes to within of its base. Younger thalli are entire with ovate blades. The thallus is supported on a robust, semi-rigid stipe, which has

mucilage Mucilage is a thick, gluey substance produced by nearly all plants and some microorganisms. These microorganisms include protists which use it for their locomotion. The direction of their movement is always opposite to that of the secretion of m ...

ducts on its surface near the upper end. The stipe is attached to a rock surface by a branched holdfast up to high. Each holfast only bears one thallus, but new blades sometimes start to grow before the old ones are shed.

Distribution and habitat

The species is found in the northeastern Pacific Ocean, its range extending from the western

to the

Bering Sea The Bering Sea (, ; rus, Бе́рингово мо́ре, r=Béringovo móre) is a marginal sea of the Northern Pacific Ocean. It forms, along with the Bering Strait, the divide between the two largest landmasses on Earth: Eurasia and The Ameri ...

and the

Aleutian Islands The Aleutian Islands (; ; ale, Unangam Tanangin,”Land of the Aleuts", possibly from Chukchi language, Chukchi ''aliat'', "island"), also called the Aleut Islands or Aleutic Islands and known before 1867 as the Catherine Archipelago, are a cha ...

off the coast of Alaska, and southwards to

Ensenada, Baja California Ensenada is a city in Ensenada Municipality, Baja California, situated on the Pacific Coast of Mexico. Located on the Bahía de Todos Santos, the city had a population of 279,765 in 2018, making it the third-largest city in Baja California. The ...

. It occurs on rocky substrates in the lower

intertidal zone The intertidal zone, also known as the foreshore, is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide (in other words, the area within the tidal range). This area can include several types of habitats with various species o ...

and the shallow

subtidal zone The neritic zone (or sublittoral zone) is the relatively shallow part of the ocean above the drop-off of the continental shelf, approximately in depth. From the point of view of marine biology it forms a relatively stable and well-illuminated ...

Ecology

''Saccharina dentigera'' is one of the most abundant kelps in the southern Kodiak Islands, and is the dominant seaweed at most sites in the shallow subtidal zone. The kelp forests provide shelter and substrate for many species of marine organisms. In May, it is found at these sites with reproductive structures. The limpet ''

Lottia instabilis ''Lottia instabilis'' is a species of sea snail, a true limpet, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Lottiidae. Common names include the unstable limpet, the unstable seaweed limpet and the rocking chair limpet. It is native to the northern ...

'' is a specialist feeder on ''S. dentigera'' to the extent that it is essentially a

parasite Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson has ...

of the kelp.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3460829 Laminariaceae