DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.16163198
title: Structural Colour in Red Seaweeds - NHM Herbarium and Literature data - March 2025

description: # Herbarium and literature data on structurally coloured red seaweeds

DOI of dataset: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16163198

The data presented here is taken from research done in the algal herbarium of the Natural History Museum London (BM), United Kingdom. The investigation consisted of looking through the herbarium collection for red algal species reported to have structural colour. Each specimen was photographed and later each photograph was analysed, the data extracted manually to be added to the database. The data presented here is a snapshot extracted from the database at the time of the writing of the paper, and the database itself is a constant work in progress. 

The data was used for the review article "Structural colour in red seaweeds is more common and diverse than has been presumed", Arnould-Pétré M., Vignolini S., Brodie J., 2025, Journal of the Royal Society Interface (in press).



structurally-coloured-red-seaweeds-herbarium-data.csv

structurally-coloured-red-seaweeds-literature-data.csv

structurally-coloured-red-seaweeds-taxonomic table.csv

structurally-coloured-red-seaweeds-literature-data-sources.csv


The main data is in the files "structurally-coloured-red-seaweeds-herbarium-data.csv" and "structurally-coloured-red-seaweeds-literature-data.csv". The other two files help to reference the species or the literature sources, respectively. 

 

## Description of the data and file structure### Data

The data was initially input in our Access database on the basis of one record (i.e. row or entry) per specimen having the exact same information (e.g. species name, exact location of collection, date of collection...). Most of the time, for the herbarium data, this means 1 record = 1 specimen. For the literature data, this means one species in a book = one record, one species in two different books = two records. The data is directly extracted from the database table (filtered by the relevant geographic location).  

 

### A few things to note:

NB1. The literature-based data and the herbarium-based data have different kind of information, notably the literature-based one has a column on the mention of structural colour (SC) in the source, which the herbarium data does not have. Additionally, the literature-based data does not have the details of the geographic localities like the herbarium-based data has (to find detailed geographic localities of the literature records, see directly in the source).

NB2. Everywhere in the files, 'SC' stands for "Structural Colour". 

NB3. Not all regions have literature data. 

 

### Files: 1. structurally-coloured-red-seaweeds-taxonomic-table.csv

Full list of species used for the investigation, with their taxonomic affiliations. Based on the currently accepted taxonomy as recorded on Algaebase (Guiry MD, Guiry GM. 2025 AlgaeBase. AlgaeBase - World-wide electronic publication, University of Galway. See https://www.algaebase.org (accessed on 25 March 2025).

Description of the rows: 




Row name
description


Order
the taxonomic order of the species


Family
the taxonomic family of the species


Genus
the taxonomic genus of the species


SpeciesID
full species name




 

2. structurally-coloured-red-seaweeds-herbarium-data.csv: 

Data extracted from the algal herbarium at the Natural History Museum (BM).

Description of the rows: 




Row name
description


mapID
number identifying the region defined in the manuscript


RecordID
unique identifier in the original Access database


SpeciesID
name of the species (genus and epithet). 


GeographicLocation
Country (or territory) of collection of the specimen - one locality per record (i.e. there is a different record for each location in the same species).


LocationPrecision
region, address, zone, landmark - any detail beyond the country, as given in herbarium.


StandardizedRegion*
Standard locality - applied from Algaebase (www.algaebase.org) geographic distribution.


LatPosition*
Rough zonation on a latitudinal gradient - as visible on a map.


GeoCoordinates
Coordinates - as given in herbarium


Habitat
type of habitat the specimen was found in - as given in herbarium. 


SpecimenCount
number of specimen with the same collection characteristics (i.e. same species, same collection date and location)


HerbariumID
Herbarium where the specimen is currently hosted


CollectionRef
any annotation on the specimen that helps in identifying exactly which sheet of the herbarium it is (in case record needs to be cross-checked).


SpecimenComment
comments written in herbarium about the material.


RecordNote*
comments by the user inputting the record: doubts about location, key information etc.




* The fields "StandardizedRegion" and "LatPosition" and "RecordNote" are the only fields which have data not directly copied from the herbarium sheet. 

3. structurally-coloured-red-seaweeds-literature-data.csvData extracted from the literature (algal flora).

Description of the rows: 




Row name
description


mapID
number identifying the region defined in the manuscript


EntryID
unique identifier in the original Access database


SpeciesID
name of the species (genus and epithet). 


GeographicLocation
Country (or territory) of collection of the specimen - one locality per record (i.e. there is a different record for each location in the same species).


SCmention
whether the source mentions structural colour or iridescence in the description.


SourceCmtRecord
comment from the source of the record, about the general distribution (above country level).


UserNoteRecord
note from the user inputting the data, about the record.


BiblioRefSource
"BibLaTex citekey" reference to the source of the information - cf. column 2 of the file "structurally-coloured-red-seaweeds-literature-data-sources.csv"


BiblioRefEntry
"BibLaTex citekey_p#": reference to the page corresponding to the record in the literature source - same as the BiblioRefSource but with the page number added. 




 

4. structurally-coloured-red-seaweeds-literature-data-sources.csv

Bibliographical details of the literature sources used in the file "structurally-coloured-red-seaweeds-literature-data.csv".

Description of the rows: 




Row name
description


RowID
unique identifier in the original Access database.


BiblioRefSource
"BibLaTex citekey" reference to the source of the information - same as in column 9 of the file "structurally-coloured-red-seaweeds-literature-data.csv"


SourceType
Type of source (Book, Article, Website...)


FullTitle
Full title of the literature source


FullAuthor1
First author of the literature source.


YearPublication
year of publication.


WebLink
link to source if online.




 

### Common fields in the different files

The columns with the same name across files can be used to connect the data. 

Notably, BiblioRefSource in the "structurally-coloured-red-seaweeds-literature-data.csv" file and the "structurally-coloured-red-seaweeds-literature-data-sources.csv" can be used to link the row in the first file to the source's metadata in the detailed in the second file. Another example: "SpeciesID" in all the files can be used to find the higher taxonomic order of the species in the file "structurally-coloured-red-seaweeds-taxonomic-table.csv".