XVI International Botanical Congess
A burst of progress on the knowledge of the Brazilian algae started in the fifities with A. B. Joly and his students, yielding a large amount of papers scattered in local journals. A first modern synthesis of the flora was made by Oliveira (1977), updated on the checklists of Wynne (1986, 1998). However, the latter publications do not discriminate where from in Brazil the species were referred to. Here we update the work of Oliveira (1977) and make it available on the INTERNET (http://www.ib.usp.br/algamare-br). Provisions were made to make the site interactive giving opportunity for continuous updating by colleagues. The actual list comprises 642 species, being 388 Rhodophyta, 88 Phaeophyta and 167 Chlorophyta. Cyanophyta will be included at a latter stage. This data bank will permit the testing of the existing biogeographic hypothesis and will supply guidelines for environmental and biodiversity conservation strategies.