BOOK REVIEW

Marine plants from Korea. Sung Min Boo and Yong DeokKo. 2012. 233 pp. Korea Institute of Ocean Science &Technology, Marine & Extreme Genome Research CenterProgram, Ansan, Korea. Printed by the research program,not for sale. [hardback: ISBN 978-89-88154-72-4-93480].

The Korean Peninsula has a rich diversity of marine algaedue to diverse habitats and the mixing of both warm andcold currents. Phycological research on marine algae ofKorea has a history of over 100 years. The first paper dealingwith the Korean marine algae was published in 1892 by DrK. Okamura, the founder of Japanese phycology. However,J. Agardh (1889) reported one new species, Sargassumcoreanum, and mentioned its locality as ‘ad oras Coreae’.Thus, we can presume that this species came from theKorean coast, although he did not describe the location indetail. Okamura (1913) first listed 102 Korean marine algae:eight green algae, 30 brown algae, 63 red algae, and one blue-green alga; later he included a total 164 taxa: 12 green algae,46 brown algae, 105 red algae, and one blue-green algaNippon Kaisoshi (Okamura 1936). These were the onlymarine algae known before 1945, and they were reported byJapanese and European phycologists.

Korean academic phycological activity began in 1966when the paper ‘On the Geographic Distribution of MarineAlgae in Korea’ was published by Prof. Jae-Won Kang, andthe Korean Phycological Society was organized in 1986.Kang’s (1966) paper listed 422 taxa and was the firstcatalogue of Korean marine algae. Subsequently, Lee &Kang (1986) listed 627 taxa. Currently, more than 900marine algae are listed for Korean waters. Many species arefamiliar to Korean people because of their use as seavegetables, such as Capsosiphon fubscens, Codium fragile,Porphyra spp., Saccharina japonica, Sargassum fusiforme,Sargassum fulvellum, Undaria pinnatifida and so on, whichare cultivated in seawater farms. Many marine algae fromnortheast Asian waters, including Korea, have been intro-duced from Australasia, Europe and America by ships andfishery exports. Therefore, the survival and adaptation ofnative populations is a focus of evolutionary biology as wellas invasive biology. Representatives include Undaria pinna-tifida, Sargassum muticum, Gracilaria vermiculophylla, Grate-loupia turuturu, Grateloupia lanceolata, Colpomenia peregrineand so on. However, only two illustrated guidebooks areavailable for Korea marine algae (Kang 1968; Lee 2008). Theformer is already out of print. This book, therefore, breaks along pause.

The book is designed to introduce marine plants togeneral public in the form of a field guide. For that reason, itcontains photographs mostly taken from the field, especiallyimages taken underwater using SCUBA diving. Thesebeautiful and high-quality photographs will provide practi-cal identification and information for field biologists as wellas for nonspecialists. The book is organized into three

chapters covering the marine green, brown and red plants,including 29 green algae, 74 brown algae, and 97 red algae.For each included species, the typical format consists of theKorean name for species, the scientific binomial name withfull authority, its taxonomic position, its type locality, ashort morphological description and its distribution inKorean waters. Most photographs are indebted to thesecond author, Yong Duk Ko, who is a professional SCUBAdiver with extensive experience collecting marine algae,especially from Jeju Island, where about 70% of Koreanmarine algae grow.

One interesting feature of this book is the inclusion ofGenBank accession numbers for most of species, which wereused to identify field samples. Molecular markers are criticalfor the species identification, especially to identify crypticspecies among a morphologically confusing species complex.Using different molecular markers, the authors confirmedthe species in Korea. Of these, Codium of the green algae; theFucales, Scytosiponaceae and Laminariales of the brownalgae; and the Gelidiaceae and Grateloupia of the red algaeare well introduced. GenBank accession numbers here in thisbook eventually will be used as a marker for seaweedidentification.

It is regrettable that the book introduces only 200 speciesfrom more than 900 Korean seaweeds. For instance, theCeramiales is one of the most speciose genera in the Koreanalgal flora, but only few species are included; this may be dueto difficulties photographing the algae in the field. Also,photomicrographs would have been very helpful for smalleralgae. In Korea, Porphyra sensu lato is the most popularmarine algae for food, but no species are listed in the book.Finally, this book is written in Korean, which may limit itsuse.

Phycologia (2013) Volume 52 (4), 375–376 Published 3 July 2013

375

Notwithstanding, this book contains many photographsthat are excellent in a technical and academic sense, and thebook contains good taxonomic and floristic informationsupported by molecular data. This book will be a good guidefor young students and the general public who are interestedin a survey of Korean seaweeds. Because of diverseenvironmental factors, such as climate change, the Koreanalgal flora is rapidly changing. Many previously knownspecies cannot be found along the Korean coast. Somephotos, such as those depicting Silvetia siliquosa, areprecious in this moment. I personally expect to see, in thenear future, additional publications that cover all the knownKorean seaweeds, and these publications will likely bewritten in English for easier worldwide utilization.

In Kyu Lee, Emeritus Professor, School of BiologicalSciences, Seoul National University, Seoul 151–742, Korea

REFERENCES

AGARDH J.G. 1889. Species Sargassorum Australiae descriptae etdispositae. Kongliga Svenska Vetenskaps Academien Handlingar23: 1–133.

KANG J.W. 1966. On the geographical distribution of marine algaein Korea. Bulletin of Busan Fisheries College, Pusan 7: 1–125.

KANG J.W. 1968. Illustrated encyclopedia of fauna & flora of Korea.Vol. 8. Marine algae. Ministry of Education, Seoul, Korea. 464pp.

LEE I.K. & KANG J.W. 1986. A checklist of Korean marine algae.Algae (¼ Korean Journal of Phycology) 1: 311–325.

LEE Y.P. 2008. Marine algae of Jeju. Academy Press, Seoul. 477 pp.LEE Y.P. & KANG S. 2001. A catalogue of the seaweeds in Korea.Jeju University Press, Jeju. 662 pp.

OKAMURA K. 1892. On the marine algae of Fusanho, Chosen.Botanical Magazine (Tokyo) 6: 117–119.

OKAMURA K. 1913. On the marine algae of Chosen. Report ofImperial Bureau of Fisheries 2: 17–30.

OKAMURA K. 1936. Nippon Kaisoshi. Uchida Rokakuho Publ. Ltd,Tokyo. 964 pp.

376 Phycologia, Vol. 52 (4), 2013