A PROFESSOR from the University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute discovered and named a new brown seaweed genus from the tropical western Pacific Manzaea.

Dr. Wilfred John E. Santiañez named the genus Manzaea after the late Filipino phycologist Dr. Artemio Manza, former professor of Botany and Dendrology at UP Los Baños, to honor his contributions on the taxonomy of coralline red algae of the Pacific Ocean.

“A detailed description of this new brown seaweed genus is published in the July 2022 issue of the Philippine Journal of Systematic Biology,” the Department of Science and Technology said.

“It is also the sixth seaweed genus that was named by Dr. Santiañez, after Tronoella, Pseudochnoospora, Dactylosiphon, Mimica, and Phycocalidia. Because of this noteworthy accomplishment, Dr. Santiañez has been called ‘the most prolific seaweed taxonomist of his generation in the Philippines and in the Southeast Asian region,’” it added.

Santiañez also discovered a new brown seaweed species called “Asterocladon ednae” from Camotes Islands in Cebu.

Asterocladon ednae is characterized by chloroplasts arranged in a star-like manner. It was the first report of the genus Asterocladon in Philippine waters.

It was named after Dr. Edna Ganzon-Fortes, Filipino seaweed taxonomist, ecophysiologist and retired professor at UP-MSI, to honor her contributions to the understanding of the Philippine seaweed biodiversity, ecophysiology, and farming.

Dr. Santiañez, together with his colleagues from Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan, published the details of this discovery in the June 2022 issue of Phycological Research.

Santiañez holds the record in having the most number of new seaweed genera described/named by a Filipino scientist.

At UP-MSI, he established the Seaweed Reference Culture Collections composed of over 200 specimens of economically- and ecologically-important seaweeds.

Santiañez was instrumental in collecting over 2,000 Philippine seaweed specimens and increasing the herbarium collections at the G.T. Velasquez Phycological Herbarium where he serves as a resident curator and collections manager. His work on Philippine seaweed biodiversity and systematics was part of his two-year engagement with UP-MSI as a DOST Long Term Balik Scientist.