Abstract
The seagrass Halophila major (Zoll.) Miquel is reported for the first time from Vietnam. It was found growing with other seagrass species nearshore, 4–6 m deep at Tre Island, Nha Trang Bay. Leaf morphology and phylogenetic analysis based on ribosomal internal transcribed spacer sequences confirmed the identification. There was very little sequence differentiation among samples of H. major collected in Vietnam and other countries in the Western Pacific region. A very low evolutionary divergence among H. major populations was found.
We are deeply indebted to all staff at the Institute of Botany, Leibniz University Hannover, Germany, and at the Department of Marine Botany, Institute of Oceanography, Vietnam, for kind support in the laboratory work and sample collection. Special and sincere thanks are also due to Prof. Dr. Karla McDermid (Hawaii University at Hilo, USA) for critically reading the manuscript and generously providing many valuable suggestions. This research was financially supported by the Leibniz University Hannover, Germany, and the Government of Vietnam.
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