How the Ecology of Calcified Red Macroalgae is Investigated under a Chemical Approach? A Systematic Review and...

Characteristics such as calcareous morphology and life cycle are used to understand the ecology of calcified rhodophytes. However, there is limited information regarding their chemical profiles and biological activities. Therefore, a systematic review (PRISMA) was conducted to assess the influence of the chemistry of calcareous rhodophytes on ecological interactions in the marine environment. The keywords used were: ["Chemical AND [Ecology OR Interaction OR Response OR Defense OR Effect OR Cue OR Mediated OR Induce]"] AND ["Red Seaweed" OR "Red Macroalgae" OR Rhodophy?] AND [Calcified OR Calcareous] in Science Direct, Scielo, PUBMED, Springer, Web of Science, and Scopus. Only English articles within the proposed theme were considered. Due to the low number of articles, another search was conducted with three classes and 16 genera. Finally, 67 articles were considered valid. Their titles, abstracts, and keywords were analyzed using IRaMuTeQ through factorial, hierarchical and similarity classification. Most of the studies used macroalgae thallus to evaluate chemical mediation while few tested crude extracts. Some substances were noted as sesquiterpene (6-hydroxy-isololiolide), fatty acid (heptadeca5,8,11-triene) and dibromomethane. The articles were divided into four classes: Herbivory, Competition, Settlement/Metamorphosis, and Epiphytism. Crustose calcareous algae were associated with studies of Settlement/Metamorphosis, while calcified algae were linked to herbivory. Thus, the importance of chemistry in the ecology of these algae is evident,and additional studies are needed to identify the substances responsible for ecological interactions. This study collected essential information on calcified red algae, whose diversity appears to be highly vulnerable to the harmful impacts of ongoing climate change.