EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS ON MORPHOLOGICAL VARIATIONS OF HYPNEA SPECIES FROM OMAN SEA

Morphological and ecological variations and inter-specific relationships of a red algal genus, Hypnea were investigated in 15 populations belong to 5 species from Oman Sea coasts. In this study, cluster analyses, principal component analysis and Canonical Correspondence Analysis were done. Statistical analyses indicated that characters such as special branches or branchlets, position of tetrasporange and algae habit are the most important diagnostic characters in intera-genus variation. In general two major clusters were formed. The first major clustercomprised H. boergesenii. Second major clustercontains two subclusters. The first subcluster comprised of H. charoides, H. valentiae and H. musciformis. The second subcluster comprised of H. pannosa. Results showed that variation in the cluster one was explained by average of annual salinity and morphological variation and in cluster two was related to average of annual PH, water temperature and impurities.