SeaKey – Identification of Seaweeds of the German North Sea Coast
Enable identification of seaweeds for variable stakeholders and students on the basis of current scientific knowledge, using a modern approach, in order to support marine biodiversity assessment
The project SeaKey develops a scientific identification key for ‘Seaweeds of the German North Sea coast’ in three parts, for brown algae, red algae and green algae. The ‘Part I. Phaeophyceae’ is already published under https://seaweeds.awi.de
The key consists of a webkey (usable as desktop version or via the App SeaKey) and downloadable and printable documents – the ‘Identification Key’ itself and the ‘Additional Information’. The latter describes our methods, provides the references, the glossary and the author names of taxa together with some synonyms.
In contrast to classical dichotomous identification keys, we follow a modern matrix key concept with variable multiple access possibilities. This enables easy comparison of similar species and supports teaching and learning. Each identification ends with a habitus image and/or additional illustrations of specific features. Separate taxon profiles for each species are under development.
Financiation: 2018 – 2021: Earth System Knowledge Platform (https://www.eskp.de/); Alfred-Wegener Institute; since 2021: Landesamt für Umwelt, Flintbek, Kiel, Germany (https://www.schleswig-holstein.de/DE/landesregierung/ministerien-behoerden/LFU/LFU_node.html)
SeaKey (sub-aspect of OASIS) is integrated in POF-IV in sub-theme 4.2 "Coastal ecosystem sustainability against the backdrop of natural and anthropogenic drivers".
Team
Inka Bartsch
Tosia Schmithüsen
Ralph Kuhlenkamp (Phycomarin)
Website: Code for Nature