Recent distribution and stock assessment of the red alga Furcellaria lumbricalis on an exposed Baltic Sea coast: combined use of field survey and modelling methods

Recent results of field studies on the exposed coast of Lithuania were used to model the area occupied by the red alga Furcellaria lumbricalis using the Natural Neighbor interpolation technique, while linear regression was applied to estimate the species' standing stock. The area covered by F. lumbricalis extended for 26 km along the coast between depths of 1 and 15 m. The maximum species cover in the study area ranged between 4 and 10 m depth, which is one of the widest in the Baltic Sea. The modelled area of F. lumbricalis covered 35 ± 11 km2 with a total biomass of 7554 ± 3813 t.