Historical Records, 1700-1900
During the 1700s, many natural historians began extensive descriptions of what were termed ‘the Algae’ from the initial growth to fructification (formation of reproductive structures) in intertidal species (Greville, 1830 and authors listed within). Some of these researchers focused on seaweeds of the British Isles (present day Éire and the United Kingdom), and many were women and clergymen (e.g. Reverend David Landsborough of Glasgow, 1847) who had a keen interest in the natural world (see Table 3). This work may have been driven by the need to understand marine harvest because ‘kelp,’ potash of all seaweeds, was an economic resource used in agriculture, as packaging material, and an iodine resource (Harvey, 1849), and this is certainly a driver for renewed interest in seaweeds from the 1940s (Ara Mara; South & Titley, 1986) to today (Monagail & Morrison, 2020). Cultural uses of kelp were also observed: one herbarium record from The National Botanic Gardens of Ireland is a rosary made from the stipes of L. digitata collected from Glencolumbkille, County Donegal (Figure 4). Historical records of Irish or Irish-based phycologists is very thoroughly outlined in Guiry (2012); but unfortunately, the information does not define the distribution of any recorded seaweeds, but instead refers to zonation on the shoreline (e.g., the taxon now termed S. latissima was thought to only live between high and low tides).Laminaria spp. and other seaweeds were often described as tangles (Harvey, 1849), and herbarium records in The National Botanic Gardens of Ireland and Trinity College indicated many Laminaria spp. could easily be grouped into what was Laminaria phyllis (present dayL. digitata ) which Harvey noted as having multiple ecotypes, some of which are actually L. hyperborea (Harvey, 1841). Previous names (not misnomers) for L. hyperborea include Fucus hyperboreus Gunnerus, Fucus scoparius Strom 1762, Hafgygia cloustonii (Edmondston) Areschoug, 1883, Laminaria cloustoniEdmondston, Laminaria hyperborea f. compressa Foslie, 1884 (Guiry & Guiry, 2020).
Marine algal communities in the British Isles were originally described as dominated by ‘Olive series’ (Phaeophyta), with many red algae (3/8 of species) and greens (1/4 species: Harvey, 1849). Interesting notes on the ecology of seaweeds include seaweed support of food webs and community structure: “The Algae, therefore by supporting the base, support the structure” (Harvey, 1849), which is potentially the first description of seaweeds as ecosystem engineers and/or providing ecosystem services. Observations were also noted on ecological interactions between coralline algae and fleshy algae (Lamouroux, 1826), the annual phenology (annual growth patterns) of marine algae, variation in zonation from subtidal to intertidal (‘land flora’) across regions, and the distribution of dominant brown algae (Cocks, 1859; Harvey, 1849). Most of these studies were restricted to coastlines where seaweed could be easily observed. Cocks (1859) even notes his thought that there would be little space for seaweed below the tidelines (i.e., subtidal). There could be a good deal of data on subtidal marine algae in sounding records of the British Admiralty dating back to 1580 which would have refuted this idea; however, these records were and are not easily accessible. Up to the 20th century much of phycology in Ireland was focused on species descriptions and distributions to the extent of providing ‘presence’ data on certain portions of the coastlines (broadly noted as ‘Northern Ireland’ or ‘County Cork’ for example) which is still an issue with some reports today (see Scally et al., 2020).