{"id":10,"date":"2016-07-27T10:59:20","date_gmt":"2016-07-27T14:59:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cschneider\/?page_id=10"},"modified":"2026-01-30T11:49:04","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T16:49:04","slug":"bermuda-flora","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cschneider\/bermuda-flora\/","title":{"rendered":"Bermuda Seaweeds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reports of benthic (attached) marine red, green, and brown algae from Bermuda began to appear in the literature in the last half of the 19th century based upon collections made on just a few voyages, including the 1873\u20131876 “Challenger<\/em> Expedition,” to the islands (Kemp 1857; Rein 1873; Dickie 1874; Hemsley 1885; Murray 1888, 1889). Some early Bermuda specimens were distributed as part of the Algae exsiccatae Americae Borealis<\/em> (A.A.B<\/em>., Farlow et al<\/em>. 1877\u20131889).<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Frank
Frank Shipley Collins (1848\u20131920)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Rev. Alpheus Baker Hervey (1839\u20131931)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1917, Frank Shipley Collins and the Rev. Alpheus Baker Hervey produced the first comprehensive marine flora of the islands and distributed the bulk of their specimens in five fascicles entitled ‘The Algae of Bermuda’ as part of Phycotheca Boreali-Americana<\/em> (P.B.-A<\/em>., Collins et al. 1912\u20131917). Collins was an accountant for the Boston Rubber Shoe Company, and in his spare time, an ardent amateur phycologist. Although his work with marine and freshwater algae was accurate and scholarly, Collins frequently conferred and corresponded with Wm. Gilson Farlow (1844\u20131919), the prominent cryptogamic botanist at Harvard University who had earlier headed the effort to distribute the A.A.B<\/em>. (Taylor 1945). Like Collins, Hervey was an amateur phycologist, variously having positions as rector of a Universalist Church and President of St. Lawrence University.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"William
William Randolph Taylor (1895\u20131990)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Marshall
Marshall Avery Howe\u00a0 (1867\u20131936)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A year after Collins & Hervey’s (1917) Algae of Bermuda appeared, Marshall Avery Howe (1918) contributed the section, ‘Algae’, in Nathaniel Lord Britton’s Flora of Bermuda<\/em>, who only included “the more common and more conspicuous algae occurring in the islands.” For many years, this was the last floristic report of Bermuda marine algae. In 1949, Wm. Randolph Taylor of the University of Michigan first visited Bermuda with his student, Albert J. Bernatowicz (Taylor 1952), and he included their data along with previous collectors in his comprehensive Marine Algae of the Eastern Tropical and Subtropical Coasts of the Americas<\/em> (1960). Later, Taylor & Bernatowicz (1969) produced an annotated list of the most common shallow water macroscopic seaweeds of the Bermudas. Since then and prior to our work, additions to the Bermuda marine flora were published only sporadically.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"Richard
Richard B. Searles<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Richard B. Searles, now Emeritus Professor of Botany at Duke University, was a student of George F. Papenfuss at UC Berkeley receiving his Ph.D. in 1965. I initiated my graduate studies with Rick at Duke in 1970, finishing my Ph.D. in 1975, then taking up my post at in the Biology Department at Trinity College, Hartford. After we completed our studies on the seaweeds of the southeastern United States concentrated in the Carolinas, we had two deep-water diving expeditions in Bermuda. Using Scuba and Surface-Supplied Air (SSA), we collected seaweeds from 12-50 m depths around the islands on the NOAA funded R\/V<\/em> Seahawk cruises of 1983 and 1985 (Searles & Schneider 1987)<\/a>. These offshore reefs had been neglected phycologically for the most part prior to that time. W.R. Taylor (1952) found the bordering reefs to be \u201cseldom accessible because of the long boat trips involved and the rarity of calm days safe for the arduous work involved.” He further stated that \u201cdredging from deep water contributed little to his [Bermuda] study, a regrettable lack from the floristic standpoint.” In the only deep water study of note, John Joseph Frederick\u2019s dissertation (under Taylor, University of Michigan, 1963) compiled a list of the seaweeds found on the Challenger and Argus Banks of the Bermuda platform, as well as other deep nearshore reefs, areas unlike most shallower reefs due their lack of massive coral pinnacles. Frederick’s specimens at the University of Michigan were collected in the early 1960s by lockout Navy divers working on the seamount platforms. My work with Rick in Bermuda started the “Notes on the marine algae of the Bermudas” series (Schneider & Searles 1997a<\/a>, 1997b<\/a>, 1998a<\/a>,1998b).<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Craig
Craig W. Schneider (L) & Christopher E. Lane (R)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My former undergraduate student, Chris Lane (B.S., Trinity College \u201899), has been working with me in Bermuda since 1999 and during that time frame earned his Ph.D. on macroalgal molecular phylogenetics at the University of New Brunswick in Gary Saunders’ seaweed lab. Chris is currently professor of molecular genetics at the University of Rhode Island. Another former student of mine, Dan McDevit (B.S., Trinity College \u201801; Ph.D. \u201810 also from Gary Saunders\u2019 UNB lab), joined us on two collecting trips helping us and then URI grad student, Thea Popolizio (Ph.D. 2015, now an assistant professor at Salem State University), with barcoding all of the marine macrophytes of Bermuda and comparable material from Key West and St. Croix. Dan is currently an Asst. Professor of Biology at the University of Delaware. Due to mutual interests in regional floristics and phylogenetics, I began working with Gary Saunders in 2006 and we have jointly published a wide swatch of seaweed papers both on Bermuda samples as well as those from many regions including New England, Canada and Australasia. With all of the collaborators mentioned, as well as many of my Trinity undergraduate thesis and research students, we have collectively published papers that include well over 100 new records, new genera and species from offshore, as well as inshore, Bermuda habitats (Cassidy et al.<\/em> 2022; Dixon et al<\/em>. 2015; Jongbloed et al<\/em>. 2024; Popolizio et al<\/em>. 2013, 2015, 2021; Richards et al<\/em>. 2019; Saunders et al<\/em>. 2006; Schneider 2000, 2004; Schneider & Lane 2005<\/a>, 2007, 2008; Schneider & Saunders 2024, 2025; Schneider et al<\/em>. 2006, 2010, 2011a, 2011b, 2012, 2014a, 2014b, 2015, 2016a, 2016b, 2017, 2018a, 2018b, 2018c, 2019a, 2019b, 2019c, 2020a, 2020b, 2021; Schneider & Wynne 2009; Schultz et al<\/em>. 2015; Wynne & Schneider 1996). Some of these taxa, newly reported for Bermuda, are widespread at least in the warm portions of the Atlantic Ocean, especially the Caribbean Sea. In these papers, based upon island collections, new genera include: <\/span><\/p>\n

Archestenogramma, <\/em><\/span>Crassitegula, <\/em><\/span>Frikkiella, <\/em><\/span>Gazzaea <\/span><\/em>and <\/span>Howella<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

and new species:\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Antithamnionella bermudica, <\/em><\/span>Archestenogramma profundum, <\/em><\/span>Asteromenia bermudensis, <\/em><\/span>Botryocladia bermudana, <\/em><\/span>B. exquisita, <\/em><\/span>Centroceras arcii, <\/em><\/span>C. illaqueans, <\/em><\/span>Chondracanthus saundersii, <\/em><\/span>Crassitegula laciniata, <\/em><\/span>C. walsinghamii, <\/em><\/span>Champia hasselbringii, <\/em><\/span>C. insularis, <\/em><\/span>Chondrophycus planiparvus, <\/em><\/span>Crouania elisiae, <\/em><\/span>Cryptonemia abyssalis, <\/em><\/span>C. antricola, <\/em><\/span>C. atrocostalis, <\/em><\/span>C. lacunicola, <\/em><\/span>C. perparva, <\/em><\/span>Dasya bathypelagica, <\/em><\/span>D. cryptica, <\/em><\/span>D. hibernae, <\/em><\/span>D. orae, <\/em><\/span>D. sylviae, <\/em><\/span>Dichotomaria huismanii, <\/em><\/span>Digenea arenahauriens, <\/em><\/span>Ethelia umbricola, <\/em><\/span>Frikkiella searlesii, <\/em><\/span>Galene leptoclados, <\/em><\/span>Gazzaea flookii, <\/em><\/span>Griffithsia aestivana, <\/em><\/span>Halopeltis pellucida, <\/em><\/span>Helminthocladia kempii, <\/em><\/span>Howella gorgoniarum, <\/em><\/span>Laurenciella namii, <\/em><\/span>Liagora nesophila, <\/em><\/span>Lobophora declerckii, <\/em><\/span>L. payriae, <\/em><\/span>Meredithia crenata, <\/em><\/span>Meristotheca odontoloma, <\/em><\/span>Nothokallymenia erosa, <\/em><\/span>Pleonosporium ricksearlesii, <\/em><\/span>Polysiphonia plectocarpa, <\/em><\/span>Psaromenia septentrionalis, <\/em><\/span>Sporolithon mesophoticum, Spyridia bernatowiczii, S. consimilis, S. rhizoidea, S. struanii, <\/em><\/span>Tepoztequiella muriamans, <\/em><\/span>Woelkerlingia sterreri, <\/em><\/span>Wrangelia abscondita, <\/em><\/span>W. hesperia, <\/em><\/span>W. incrassata, <\/span><\/em>W. laxa, <\/em><\/span>W. ryancraigii, <\/em><\/span>W. secundiramea <\/em>and <\/span>Yamadaella grassyi<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

All new records collected prior to 2003 were compiled with all historical reports into a checklist of the Bermuda red, green and brown seaweeds (Schneider 2003). A revision of this checklist was submitted in 2026 including all of the changes since the 2003 version. Most of these changes were accomplished by molecular-assisted alpha taxonomy (MAAT) with the help of the Saunders and Lane labs at UNB and URI respectively, and a summary of those practices is outlined by Cianciola et al<\/em>. (2010<\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Nomad
Submersibles Nomad and Nemo at 200 m<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In August of 2016, Thea Popolizio and I\u00a0<\/span>were scientists aboard the\u00a0<\/span>R\/V\u00a0Baseline Explorer<\/em>, where specimens were gathered in the mesophotic zone of Bermuda from 50\u2013178 m using submersibles and technical (rebreather) divers. Our specimens were dried on silica gel for MAAT studies, and we prepared herbarium vouchers for future work and <\/span>distribution. Some of these specimens have already been reported on after molecular analysis and morphological study in my lab at Trinity College (Cassidy et al.<\/em> 2022; Jongbloed et al<\/em>. 2024; Richards et al<\/em>. 2019; <\/span>Schneider <\/span>et al<\/em>. 2018b, 2019a, 2019b, 2020a, 2021; Stefanoudis <\/span>et al<\/em>. 2019)<\/span>. Many of the 2016 samples turned out to be the same as specimens reported by J.J. Frederick from the offshore seamounts in 1963. Molecular analyses allowed for the correct placement of most in new genera and species. An online field guide to many of the common species of plants and animals we collected on the cruise is available as <\/span>Stefanoudis <\/span>et al<\/em>. (<\/span>2018<\/a>). <\/span>This deep-water expedition was supported by the Nekton Foundation, Oxford, England.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"
Diving on the wreck of the Louise<\/em> in Bermuda, August 2016 (photo: P. Rouja)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

After the deep water cruise, I made a dive with Chris Flook and Philippe Rouja on the wreck of the former 1st <\/span>Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps WWI troop transport vessel <\/span>Louise<\/em> that was first discovered in 2014 by Philippe, Custodian of Historic Wrecks (Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Ministry of Public Works), a quarter mile off Fort Saint <\/span>Catherine\u2019s on St. George\u2019s Island at Murray’s Anchorage. There we found the wreck resting at a depth of 14\u201315 m in a expansive meadow of Halimenda lacrimosa<\/em>, a species that until that time was unknown in Bermuda (Schneider et al<\/em>. 2016<\/a>b). I had been collecting in Bermuda for three decades and had never seen this calcareous green before, and here was as huge population growing over sand. This species was greatly contributing to the production of sand in the area, and I would likely never have noticed it except that we three had chosen to dive a wreck that was newly found in Bermuda. Such is the fortuitous luck in discovering the species that reside in the islands.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
H. lacrimosa<\/em> from off the stern of the Louise<\/em>, 2016. (photo: P. Rouja)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"
Halimeda lacrimosa <\/em>M.Howe, CWS<\/em> no. 16\u201324\u20131<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/section>\n

One study that did not add species to the flora focused on the macroalgal species no longer collected in Bermuda, species that were common, or at least easy to find, in the islands over a hundred years ago (Schneider & Flook 2017). Along with local naturalist and waterman Christopher Flook of BIOS, I listed the “missing” species, mostly ones from the intertidal or shallow subtidal, and speculated that protections of herbivorous parrotfish in Bermuda unleashed tremendous grazing pressure on algal populations causing species disappearances (local extirpation) after the fish populations subsequently expanded. Interestingly, the mesophotic zone of the Bermuda platform has been found to be a present day refuge for at least one of these, Botryocladia occidentalis,<\/em> thought by us to be extirpated species in the islands.<\/em> Although it has not been found in the shallow inshore environments of Bermuda where it was frequently collected from the late 1800s through mid-20th<\/sup> century, W.R. Taylor identified several 1961 specimens collected on the mesophotic Challenger Bank from 55\u201365 m. A recent collection from a 60 m ledge northeast of St. George\u2019s was found in 2016 verifying its continued presence in the Bermuda flora.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bermuda Seaweeds as Art<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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I had the opportunity to highlight several Bermuda seaweeds in an art show of greatly enlarged digital prints entitled “Forms Most Beautiful and Most Wonderful<\/em>” at a Trinity College gallery in September, 2018. <\/span>CS Art Show<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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Literature Cited<\/span><\/h2>\n