| Abstrak/Abstract |
Recently, there are many products yielded from benthic macroalgae (well-known as seaweed) by people as well as food and trade materials. Indonesian government always supports the development of seaweed culture in many ways to increase people prosperity. In Indonesia, seaweed is one of the most popular commodities which is cultivated or harvested directly from their habitat by farmers. Unfortunately, this direct picking-up seaweed from natural habitats is mostly done in only one or limited species in great amount of it. In the long-term it will reduce the richness of seaweed species. The aim of the research was to investigate the seaweed diversity and their association with seagrass in Toli-toli Bay, Central Sulawesi. The obtained data can be used to complete local government database for natural resources management. The information gathered about species richness will expectedly improve and diversifies society's knowledge about coastal ecosystem as well as biology of seaweed. Research was conducted on May 3 - 10, 2009 by research team of various subjects include seagrass and seaweed using KR Baruna Jaya VIII LIPI. Seaweed were collected from coastal area using snorkeling handpicking method and represented as herbarium specimens. The results revealed that there were 27 species belongs to 15 ordo and 10 familia and divided into 15 species of Chlorophyceae, 3 species of Phaeophyceae, and 10 species of Rhodophyceae. Ulva fasciata Delile (Chlorophyceae) always be found in segrass population as association species. |
