This proposal represents an ROW career advancement award to gain training in techniques in molecular biology to apply to ongoing studies on the taxonomy and evolutionary history of calcareous algae of coral reefs, in particular representatives of the genus, Halimeda. The classical taxonomy of Halimeda and other calcareous members of the Bryopsidalean algae is unusually difficult. The Bryopsidalean algae do not have clear sexual characteristics that can be readily used to separate species and the full life cycle for many species has not been worked out. This award will permit the acquisition of the methodologies currently being applied to understanding taxonomy and diversity in other organisms, to test key hypotheses concerning the relationships within this interesting and important group of marine algae.
