BIOTIC

BIOTIC Species Information for Ahnfeltia plicata
All Taxonomy Biology Distribution Reproduction

Researched by	Will Rayment	Data supplied by	MarLIN
Refereed by	Dr Fabio Rindi
General Biology
Growth form	Foliose Turf Crustose soft	Feeding method	Photoautotroph
Mobility/Movement	Permanent attachment	Environmental position	Epilithic
Typical food types	Not relevant	Habit	Attached
Bioturbator	Not relevant	Flexibility	High (>45 degrees)
Fragility	Intermediate	Size	Medium(11-20 cm)
Height		Growth Rate	See additional information
Adult dispersal potential	None	Dependency	Independent
Sociability	Solitary
Toxic/Poisonous?	No
General Biology Additional Information	Growth rate Maggs & Pueschel (1989) recorded observations on growth of Ahnfeltia plicata from Nova Scotia. 4 months after germination of carpospores, tetrasporophyte crusts had grown up to 2.6 mm in diameter. 2 months after germination of tetraspores, the basal holdfast had reached 1.1 mm in diameter, with numerous hair like fronds emerging. After 14 months the axes had grown up to 50 mm in length. In a continuous spray culture with water at 8-11°C and light intensities of 40-60 µE/m²/s, mean apical growth of Ahnfeltia plicata was 17.2 µm/day over 19 days (Indergaard et al., 1986). Permanently immersed plants under the same conditions grew at approximately 7 µm/day. Conversely, percentage biomass increase was greater under the permanent immersion regime; 0.57% increase in mass/day vs. 0.20% for the plants in spray culture (Indergaard et al., 1986).
Biology References	Fish & Fish, 1996, Dickinson, 1963, Dixon & Irvine, 1977, Maggs & Pueschel, 1989, Indergaard et al., 1986, Bird et al., 1991,