There are over 500 species of seaweeds in coastal British Columbia. Making sense of them can seem daunting at first, but luckily there are a cornucopia of print and web resources for identification and interpretion. The items below should be a good jumping off point.
(1) Books
Identification
Bridgette Clarkston. 2015. A field guide to seaweeds of the Pacific Northwest. Harbour Publishing. Laminated folding pamphlet.
A portable and visual field guide to the most common species in our region.
Louis Dreuhl and Bridgette Clarkston. 2016. Pacific seaweeds: a guide to common seaweeds of the west coast. Harbour Publishing. 320 pp.
This is a visual and accessible guide covering the diversity identification, ecology and gastronomy of seaweeds in our region.
Paul W. Gabrielson and Sandra C. Lindstrom. 2018. Keys to the Seaweeds and Seagrasses of Southeast Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon. Phycological Contribution ...more ↓
There are over 500 species of seaweeds in coastal British Columbia. Making sense of them can seem daunting at first, but luckily there are a cornucopia of print and web resources for identification and interpretion. The items below should be a good jumping off point.
(1) Books
Identification
Bridgette Clarkston. 2015. A field guide to seaweeds of the Pacific Northwest. Harbour Publishing. Laminated folding pamphlet.
A portable and visual field guide to the most common species in our region.
Louis Dreuhl and Bridgette Clarkston. 2016. Pacific seaweeds: a guide to common seaweeds of the west coast. Harbour Publishing. 320 pp.
This is a visual and accessible guide covering the diversity identification, ecology and gastronomy of seaweeds in our region.
Paul W. Gabrielson and Sandra C. Lindstrom. 2018. Keys to the Seaweeds and Seagrasses of Southeast Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon. Phycological Contribution Number 9. PhycoID. 180 pp.
A highly technical and exacting key to all the seaweed species in the Northeast Pacific.
Biology & Ecology
Robert E. Lee. 2018. Phycology. Cambridge University Press. 546 pp.
A recent update of a standard textbook of algae. This covers phycology in the broadest sense, from unicellular diatoms to towering kelps. Comprehensive, with an emphasis on life histories.
Catriona Hurd, Paul Harrison, Kai Bischof and Christopher Lobban. 2014. Seaweed Ecology and Physiology. Cambridge University Press. 551 pp.
Focused on the ecology and physiology of seaweeds in the ocean, with an emphasis on factors (nutrients, light, predation et al.) controlling distributions and interactions.
(2) Websites
Central Coast Biodiversity (Hakai Institute) https://www.centralcoastbiodiversity.org/seaweeds-algae-and-seagrasses.html
This site provides a visual index of the major seaweed species in our region with basic information about biology, ecology and identification as well as links to further information.
EFLORA BC Algae Page. http://ibis.geog.ubc.ca/biodiversity/eflora/algae.html
A good portal for accessing distribution maps, photographs and species information for seaweeds in our region.
Seaweeds of Alaska. http://www.seaweedsofalaska.com/
(3) Herbaria
UBC Algal Collections. https://www.zoology.ubc.ca/~biodiv/museum/herbarium/algae/index.html
Large collection of pressed seaweeds with a searchable database. You can also order some publications through this portal.
Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbarium. http://www.pnwherbaria.org/
Combined portal for searching collections information from 40 herbaria. Geographical search by taxonomic group shows 363 records for seaweeds and other alga along shores of the Comox Valley Regional District
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Comox Valley Shoreline Life
