Stylodinium is algae of the year 2022: An ambassador against species extinction and for the need for research

Abstract

Measured against their presumably immense ecological importance, the diversity of unicellular organisms has hardly been discovered up to now. At the same time, the survival of this diversity is threatened by environmental degradation and climate change as never before in the Earth’s history. Numerous species may become extinct before they have even been scientifically inventoried, and the consequences of this decimation are difficult to assess at present. The peculiar epiphytic alga Stylodinium is a representative for this dilemma: Important morphological and molecular details are currently just as unknown as are its precise services in the web of ecosystems. The development of the unusual stalk, with which the dinophyte attaches itself – at least temporarily – to other algae, has only been scientifically documented once since its discovery. There is an urgent need for research on Stylodinium, and it is to be hoped that more attention will be paid to the organisms of the microcosm in the future than in the past.