The freshwater red algal genus Sheathia contains species with heterocortication (both bulbous and cylindrical cells covering the main axis) and homocortication (only cylindrical cells). When the genus was proposed, the species with heterocortication were revised, but all specimens with homocortication were assigned to Sheathia arcuata with the caveat that it may represent a species complex. Recent studies have described new species with homocortication and S. arcuata has been rendered paraphyletic. In the current study, new sequences of the rbcL and 5′ region of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I markers were combined with previously published data to construct a robust phylogeny and circumscribe new species. Four new species, S. abscondita, S. californica, S. plantuloides, and S. transpacifica are proposed. Examination of morphological characters among homocorticate species show no diagnostic characters to distinguish among species, whereas S. plantuloides is only known from sporophytes (chantransia) so it lacks the typical morphological characters derived from the gametophytes for comparison. Although DNA sequence data would be needed to make a positive species identification, geography could be employed to narrow the identification to one or two species. The genus is geographically widespread having been recorded from oceanic islands and five continents, whereas the individual species typically occur on a single continent. With this study, the number of species recognized in Sheathia is raised to 17; seven heterocorticate and 10 homocorticate, making this genus one of the most species rich in the Batrachospermales. As well, the resulting phylogeny provides insights into the evolution of heterocortication in Sheathia.

Gymnodinium smaydae is a newly described mixotrophic dinoflagellate that feeds on only Heterocapsa spp. and Scrippsiella acuminata among 19 tested algal prey. It is one of the fastest growing dinoflagellates when feeding, but does not grow well without prey. To investigate its spatial-temporal distributions in Korean waters, we quantified its abundance in water samples that were seasonally collected from 28 stations along the Korean Peninsula from April 2015 to October 2018, using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reactions. This dinoflagellate had a wide distribution, as reflected by the detection of G. smaydae cells at 23 of the sampling stations. However, this distribution had a strong seasonality; it was detected at 21 stations in the summer and only one station in winter. The abundance of G. smaydae was significantly and positively correlated with chlorophyll a concentration as well as with water temperature. However, there were no significant correlations between the abundance of G. smaydae and salinity, concentrations of nutrients, or dissolved oxygen concentration. During the study period, G. smaydae was present when water temperatures were 7.6-28.0℃, salinities were 9.6-34.1, concentrations of NO₃ were not detectable-106.0 μM, and concentrations of PO₄ were not detectable-3.4 μM. The highest abundance of G. smaydae was 18.5 cells mL^-1 in the coastal waters of Jinhae in July 2017 when the chlorophyll a concentration was 127 mg m^-3 and water temperature was 23.8℃. Therefore, the spatial-temporal distribution of G. smaydae in Korean coastal waters may be affected by chlorophyll a concentration and water temperature.

Temperate rocky reefs dominated by the giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera, support diverse assemblages of benthic macroalgae that provide a suite of ecosystem services, including high rates of primary production in aquatic ecosystems. These forests and the benthic macroalgae that inhabit them are facing both short-term losses and long-term declines throughout much of their range in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Here, we quantified patterns of benthic macroalgal biomass and irradiance on rocky reefs that had intact kelp forests and nearby reefs where the benthic macroalgae had been lost due to deforestation at three sites along the California, USA and Baja California, MEX coasts during the springs and summers of 2017 and 2018. We then modeled how the loss of macroalgae from these reefs impacted net benthic productivity using species-specific, mass-dependent rates of photosynthesis and respiration that we measured in the laboratory. Our results show that the macroalgal assemblages at these sites were dominated by a few species of stipitate kelps and fleshy red algae whose relative abundances were spatially and temporally variable, and which exhibited variable rates of photosynthesis and respiration. Together, our model estimates that the dominant macroalgae on these reefs contribute 15 to 4,300 mg C m^-2 d^-1 to net benthic primary production, and that this is driven primarily by a few dominant taxa that have large biomasses and high rates of photosynthesis and / or respiration. Consequently, we propose that the loss of these macroalgae results in the loss of an important contribution to primary production and overall ecosystem function.

Haematococcus pluvialis is a commercial microalga that can produce high quantities of astaxanthin. Under induced conditions, some important changes in the subcellular structures related to astaxanthin accumulation were observable. For example, a large number of astaxanthin granules, oil structures and starch granules appeared in the thick-walled cells; Astaxanthin granules gradually dissolved into the oil structures and spread throughout the entire cell with the fusion and diffusion process of oil structures during the middle and late stages of induction; The plastoglobules were closed to the newly formed structures, and some plastoglobules would abnormally increase in size under stress. Based on observations of cell damage, the degradation of membrane structures, such as chloroplasts, was found to be the primary form of damage during the early stage of induction. During the middle stage of induction, some transparent holes were exposed in the dissolving astaxanthin granules in the cytoplasm. In thick-walled cells, these transparent holes were covered by oil substances dissolving astaxanthin, thereby avoiding further damage to cells. Given the relatively few oil structures, in non-thick-walled cells, the transparent holes expanded to form multiple transparent areas, eventually resulting in the rupture and death of cells. These results suggested that the high level of synthesis and the wide range diffusion of oil explained the expansion of astaxanthin in H. pluvialis.

Water temperature is known to affect the growth and feeding of marine dinoflagellates. Each dinoflagellate species grows well at a certain optimal temperature but dies at very cold and hot temperatures. Thus, changes in water temperatures driven by global warming and extremely high or low temperatures can affect the distribution of dinoflagellates. Yihiella yeosuensis is a mixotrophic dinoflagellate that can feed on only the cryptophyte Teleaulax amphioxeia and the chlorophyte Pyramimonas sp. Furthermore, it grows fast mixotrophically but rarely grows photosynthetically. We explored the direct and indirect effects of water temperature on the growth and ingestion rates of Y. yeosuensis feeding on T. amphioxeia and the growth rates of T. amphioxeia and Pyramimonas sp. under 7 different water temperatures (5-35℃). Both the autotrophic and mixotrophic growth rates of Y. yeosuensis on T. amphioxeia were significantly affected by temperature. Under the mixotrophic and autotrophic conditions, Y. yeosuensis survived at 10-25℃, but died at 5℃ and ≥30℃. The maximum mixotrophic growth rate of Y. yeosuensis on T. amphioxeia (1.16 d^-1) was achieved at 25℃, whereas the maximum autotrophic growth rate (0.16 d^-1) was achieved at 15℃. The maximum ingestion rate of Y. yeosuensis on T. amphioxeia (0.24 ng C predator^-1 d^-1) was achieved at 25℃. The cells of T. amphioxeia survived at 10-25℃, but died at 5 and ≥30℃. The cells of Pyramimonas sp. survived at 5-25℃, but died at 30℃. The maximum growth rate of T. amphioxeia (0.72 d^-1) and Pyramimonas sp. (0.75 d^-1) was achieved at 25℃. The abundance of Y. yeosuensis is expected to be high at 25℃, at which its two prey species have their highest growth rates, whereas Y. yeosuensis is expected to be rare or absent at 5℃ or ≥30℃ at which its two prey species do not survive or grow. Therefore, temperature can directly or indirectly affect the population dynamics and distribution of Y. yeosuensis.

Omega-3 fatty acids, including eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), are polyunsaturated fatty acids beneficial to human health. A limited number of microalgae have been used for commercial omega-3 production, which necessitates the identification of new microalgae with high omega-3 contents. We explored the fatty acid composition and EPA and DHA contents of the mixotrophic dinoflagellate Gymnodinium smaydae fed with the optimal algal prey species Heterocapsa rotundata. Cells of G. smaydae were found to be rich in omega-3 fatty acids. In particular, the DHA content of G. smaydae was 21 mg g^-1 dry weight, accounting for 43% of the total fatty acid content. The percentage of DHA in the total fatty acid content of G. smaydae was the highest among the reported microalgae except for Crypthecodinium cohnii. Moreover, to determine if the prey supply interval affected the growth rate of G. smaydae and its fatty acid content, three different prey supply intervals (daily, once every 2 d, and once for 4 d) were tested. Daily prey supply yielded the highest total fatty acid and DHA contents in G. smaydae. Furthermore, we successfully produced high-density G. smaydae cultures semi-continuously for 43 d with daily prey supply. During the semi-continuous cultivation period, the highest density of G. smaydae was 57,000 cells mL^-1, with an average growth rate of 0.7 d^-1. Taken together, the percentage of EPA and DHA in the total fatty acid content was maintained in the range of 54.2-56.9%. The results of this study support G. smaydae as a promising microalgal candidate for commercial DHA production and demonstrate that daily supply of prey can efficiently produce high-density G. smaydae cultures for more than a month.

The applications of DNA barcoding have a wide range of uses, such as in taxonomic studies to help elucidate cryptic species and phylogenetic relationships and analyzing environmental samples for biodiversity monitoring and conservation assessments of species. After obtaining the DNA barcode sequences, sequence similarity-based homology analysis is commonly used. This means that the obtained barcode sequences are compared to the DNA barcode reference databases. This bioinformatic analysis necessarily implies that the overall quantity and quality of the reference databases must be stringently monitored to not have an adverse impact on the accuracy of species identification. With the development of next-generation sequencing techniques, a noticeably large number of DNA barcode sequences have been produced and are stored in online databases, but their degree of validity, accuracy, and reliability have not been extensively investigated. In this study, we investigated the extent to which the amount and types of erroneous barcode sequences were deposited in publicly accessible databases. Over 4.1 million sequences were investigated in three largescale DNA barcode databases (NCBI GenBank, Barcode of Life Data System [BOLD], and Protist Ribosomal Reference database [PR2]) for four major DNA barcodes (cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 [COI], internal transcribed spacer [ITS], ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase large chain [rbcL], and 18S ribosomal RNA [18S rRNA]); approximately 2% of erroneous barcode sequences were found and their taxonomic distributions were uneven. Consequently, our present findings provide compelling evidence of data quality problems along with insufficient and unreliable annotation of taxonomic data in DNA barcode databases. Therefore, we suggest that if ambiguous taxa are presented during barcoding analysis, further validation with other DNA barcode loci or morphological characters should be mandated.