Fig. 2: Collage depicting ecological and socioeconomic
importance of fucoids. 1. Intertidal forests of the world’s largest
fucoid (>10 m Durvillaea ). 2. The world’s smallest
fucoid (<5 cm Notheia anomala ) as an obligate epiphyte
on its fucoid host, Hormosira banksii . 3. Subtidal fucoid
forests of reintroduced and restored Phyllospora comosa(‘Operation Crayweed’ , Vergés et al. 2020), 4. Fucoid beach wrack,
arising from the world’s largest seaweed forest of pelagicSargassum spp. , 5. Diverse fucoid forests in Kaikoura with
12 cooccurring fucoid species (Hormosira banksii , Notheia
anomala , Landsburgia quercifolia, Sargassum sinclarii, 2
Marginariella species, 2 Carpophyllum species, 2Durvillaea species, and 3 Cystophora species). 6. Same
location as in ‘5’ showing destroyed fucoid forests after a natural
disaster (seismic uplift in November 2016). 7. Fucoid holdfasts
inhabited by >50 invertebrate species (Durvillaea ).
8. Same location as in ‘7’ showing a dying fucoid ‘ghost’ holdfast
leading to regional extinction after the 2017/18 Tasman Sea heatwave.
9-13 Examples of fucoid ‘beds’ (literally) for charismatic animals - a
polar bear resting on arctic Fucus wrack, a fur seal and snares
penguins resting on intertidal Durvillaea in New Zealand and its
subantarctic islands, and juvenile Loggerhead turtles and co-evolved
camouflaged Sargassum frog fish resting on, feeding within, and
avoiding predators in floating pelagic Sargassum forests. 14-15.
Fucoids as socioeconomic resources showing historical and present-day
harvest of beach wrack and living fucoid forests. 16. Fucoid
(cochayuyo/Durvillaea antarctica) as a dish eaten today and
14,000 years ago by the first settlers of South America, fossilized in
the Verde-caves and has perpetuated common vernacular with ‘remojar el
cochayuyo’ (i.e., ‘soaking the cochayuyo’) being slang for sexual
intercourse. Photo 1-3, 5-9, 10 by M. Thomsen, 4, 9, 11-16 are ©alamy
Stock Photo Inc. www.alamy.com (ID numbers;
2J0618Y, BK6YHM, C02031, A04M5Y, W85DCC, FG6YE7, 2CB2CCN, and M4Y7XT,
respectively).