XVI International Botanical Congess
Of the 14 species of Sargassum species reported for the Atlantic Basin, seven have been recorded within the Gulf of Mexico. Distributional limits of onshore and offshore taxa, and corresponding species boundaries were evaluated based on traditional and molecular methods (rbcL-IGS-rbcS sequence analysis). Preliminary rbcL- IGS-rbcS based-phylogenies were combined with Pacific species in order to assess various biogeographic hypotheses.