Corallines: Calcified Ecological Engineers; a Global Biome and Paleothermometer

Walter Adey began his career in the early 1960’s with  ground-breaking graduate school studies of this large, poorly known, but globally distributed group  of ecosystem-building red algae.

 

Using the new tool of SCUBA, and purpose-built small research vessels, he was able to disclose the calcified crusts that extensively provided the underpinning of North Atlantic rocky shore ecosystems. Using all the laboratory tools then available, he demonstrated a very complex anatomy and reproduction, as well as an intricate ecological and biogeographic distribution. Demonstrating that these crusts had yearly cycling layers of subcellular carbonate showed that these elusive crusts were among the oldest organisms in the sea.

 

Adding the new tools of genetic sequencing, DNA information showed the intricate patterns of evolution within this very large group. With numerous colleagues, late in his career, this knowledge would allow corallines to become substantial libraries of past climates and past ecologies.