Marine algae of the Iwadate coast, northwestern Honshu, Japan

Abstract

The marine algal flora of the Iwadate coast of Akita Prefecture, Japan, was studied from April 1999 to March 2000. Algal species composition in the intertidal and subtidal regions and on the four artificial reefs introduced in March and October 1995, October 1997, and October 1998 was observed. A total of 108 species of marine plants were listed, of which five species were new records for the algal flora of the northwestern, Japan Sea coast part of Honshu. Few species had colonised the reef introduced in 1998 and 71.4% of the species there were annuals. Five species of 12 species of fucoids described for the area by Konno (1971) were not found during the present study.