Chapter 07: Vulnerability of macroalgae of the Great Barrier Reef to climate change

Abstract

Assessing the vulnerability of benthic macroalgae is complicated by the fact that the taxon ‘algae’ is an unnatural (and, some suggest, outdated) grouping that encompasses several distinct and diverse evolutionary lines. Adl et al.3 suggest that ‘algae’ remains a useful functional term, denoting photosynthetic protists and their multicellular derivatives which are not embryophytes (higher plants), as well as cyanobacteria. However, they also show that ‘algae’, like ‘protists’, is not a formal taxon (and therefore should not be capitalised), nor a single, homogeneous group.