Duke University Press Seaweeds of the Southeastern United States: Cape Hatteras to Cape Canaveral

Seaweeds of the Southeastern United States offers a definitive manual for the identification of the seaweeds that inhabit the deep offshore waters as well as the near shoreline and shallow sounds from North Carolina to Florida. The volume provides a natural key to the class, order, family, and genera with detailed descriptions, 560 illustrations, and an artificial key listing simple characteristics for quick identification of the green, brown, and red benthic marine algae (or “bottom growers”) that inhabit the region. The southeastern Atlantic coast is home to 334 species of seaweed flora. The greatest diversity occurs along the North Carolina coast between Cape Lookout and Cape Fear. With the exception of a few additional species south of Cape Fear, there is not a marked change in the flora until the more tropical waters and seaweeds of southern Florida. The barrier island system of the region and the enclosed shallow water sounds extend the miles of shoreline available for study. This book, the product of a twenty-year collaboration, is the first comprehensive guide to appear in over seventy years and includes the addition of nearly one hundred species to the region, including twenty-five described by the authors.