Editorial: Ecological and genetic insights into seaweeds’ diversity and adaptation

Seaweeds (marine macroalgae) have long been recognized as important primary producers and ecological engineers capable of modifying the surrounding coastal rocky environments and ecosystem services (Harley et al., 2012). However, climate change, anthropogenic pressures and other biotic/abiotic factors in the past decade have imposed unparalleled impacts on the diversity, distribution, reproduction, population structure, biogeography and ecological function of seaweeds globally (Breeman, 1990; Müller et al., 2009; Martínez et al., 2018; de la Hoz et al., 2019; Song et al., 2021; Bringloe et al., 2022). There are a number of research gaps that still need to be investigated in order to better understand the drivers of diversity and the response of seaweeds under climate change: (a) How do different seaweed species respond to the interactive effects of biotic and abiotic factors? (b) How does genetic variation translate into fitness variation in natural population? (c) How does eco-physiological performance enhance resilience and adaptability to a changing environment? And (d) how do biochemical and metabolic processes affect seaweeds’ cellular structure and biological function under different climate change scenarios? Answering these questions is a monumental task that requires unveiling the links between genotypes, phenotypes, and fitness by integrating perspectives from ecology, physiology, to molecular genetics and biochemistry (Nelson et al., 2019).