Marine Algae of French Frigate Shoals, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands: Species List and Biogeographic Comparisons

French Frigate Shoals represents a relatively unpolluted tropical Pacific atoll system with algal assemblages minimally impacted by anthropogenicactivities. This study qualitatively assessed algal assemblages at 57 sites, therebyincreasing the number of algal species known from French Frigate Shoals byover 380% with 132 new records reported, four being species new to the Ha-waiian Archipelago,Bryopsis indica, Gracilaria millardetii, Halimeda distorta, andan unidentified species ofLaurencia. Cheney ratios reveal a truly tropical flora,despite the subtropical latitudes spanned by the atoll system. Multidimensionalscaling showed that the flora of French Frigate Shoals exhibits strong similarities to that of the main Hawaiian Islands and has less commonality with thatof most other Pacific island groups.