Focus on Genetics, Diversity and Distribution of Marine Macroalgae

Olivier De Clerck is the head of the Phycology research group at Ghent University. The professor’s research group focuses on genetics, diversity and distribution of marine macroalgae. It addresses questions ranging from descriptive taxonomy over ecological studies, forecasting the distribution of species in relation to environmental change to genomics of selected green and brown seaweed species. A substantial part of this lab’s research involves a combination of fieldwork, culturing and manipulating seaweed strains to study their development, gamete development or morphogenesis and genomics.

De Clerck has a broad interest in seaweed diversity and patterns of genetic diversity. He addresses questions using a combination of fieldwork, molecular data and culture experiments. Many of these projects make use of the brown alga Dictyota, a genus to which he has become well acquainted over the years.