Seaweed chemical diversity: an additional and efficient tool for coastal evaluation

Abstract

The assessment of human impacts on marine eco- systems is usually done by assessing changes in species diversity and abundance. Here, we add to this approach the assessment of primary and secondary metabolites from macroalgal communities in urban and protected areas in south Brazil and investigate whether the chemical diversity of ma- rinemacroalgae isaffectedbyenvironmental changes, suchas those caused by coastal urbanization, through the use of thin- layer chromatography.Additionally,wecomparethechemical and biological diversity of macroalgal communities within urban and undeveloped sites along the southern Brazilian coast. Coastlines within protected areas had greater species richness and higher amounts of substances such as chloro- phylls, carotenoids and lipids as well as a greater chemical diversity than coasts subjected to multiple stressors from urbanization. We conclude that the composition and abun- dance of primary and secondary metabolites provide useful additional information about the ecological status of coastal environments and improve our understanding of the effects of coastal biodiversity loss due to coastal urbanization.