Diversity of the genus Genkalia (Bacillariophyta) in boreal and mountain lakes - taxonomy, distribution and ecology.

Abstract

Genkalia digitulus (Hustedt) lange-BeRt. et kulikovskiy (≡ Navicula digitulus Hustedt) is recorded from several lakes in the northern Europe and from high altitude lakes all over Europe. Wide distribution and characteristic autecology of this species allow its use as a bioindicator of pH changes and reliable marker of environmental reconstruction. A comparison of specimens found in lakes from the Carpathian and Balkan Mountains with the type material of Genkalia digitulus (Hustedt) lange-BeRt. et kulikovskiy resulted in description of a new species -G. boreoalpina Wojtal, C.E. Wetzel, ector, ognjanova-Rumenova et Buczkó. Genkalia boreoalpina is characterised by valve outline, size and parallel striae throughout most of the valve. The separation was based on light and scanning electron microscopy. Genkalia boreoalpina was the most common diatom of the genus from high mountain lakes of slightly acidic waters with a very low mineral content. The third species, Navicula subprocera Hustedt, was found in the Lake Câlcescu (Parâng Mountains) in alkaline waters and in a mountain fen in Herzegovina. The nomenclatorial combination to Genkalia was made for this species. Previously published data suggest there is a much larger diversity of species in the genus Genkalia and the cosmopolitan distribution of this group is mostly presented at the genus level.

Diversity of Algae and Cyanobacteria and Bioindication Characteristics of the Alpine Lake Nesamovyte (Eastern Carpathians, Ukraine) from 100 Years Ago to the Present

“…Species of this taxonomic group were found to be resistant to heavy metal ions Cd-0.26 mg L −1 , Cr-2.37 mg L −1 , Pb-0.39 mg L −1 [70,72,74]. Furthermore, high values of the diversity of Bacillariophyta as the leading taxonomic group is distinctive of the highlands of Europe [14,26,52,54,55,60] and correspond to our obtained results. Besides, oligotrophic lakes of the alpine zone are refugium for the conservation of rare and conditionally endemic species [15,39,126], and therefore the presence of European and regionally rare species of Bacillariophyta in the ecotopes of the Nesamovyte Lake is an additional argument for the protection and preservation of the ecosystem of this lake and its diversity as a habitat for their existence.…”

“…Species diversity of these organisms in general and algae in particular in the Central and Southern European ecosystems of mountain lakes were carefully studied during the end of the ХIХ-ХХth century [30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43]. The species composition of algae found in the mountain lakes in the Carpathian-Tatra region (western part of the Carpathian mountain system) was studied in detail [9,10,35,37,[44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60]. However, the eastern part of the region (Eastern Carpathians and especially the Ukrainian Carpathians, which cover an area of 24,000 km 2 and have a length of 280 km, from the Polish to the Romanian border) is characterized by incomplete data regarding the algal composition and the lack of information according to individual taxonomic groups and types of waterbodies so far [61].…”

Macroinvertebrate communities in spring-fed alpine source pools

“…The major ion concentrations in the springs and source pools were very low with conductivities below 10 lS cm -1 , similar to previously reported Australian alpine waters (Silvester, 2009;Green, 2012;Chang et al, 2014) as well as some alpine spring waters in Europe (Balestrini et al, 2014;Wojtal et al, 2014) and in the Himalayas (Balestrini et al, 2013). The ionic concentrations are also very similar to the Mt Kosciuszko lakes (Williams et al, 1970) and of regional rainfall in south-east Victoria (Hutton & Leslie, 1958;Dean et al, 2014) suggesting that the groundwater recharge water is not strongly modified by rock interactions.…”

Holocene glacier activity reconstructed from proglacial lake Gjøavatnet on Amsterdamøya, NW Svalbard

“…Assemblages were dominated by Pinnularia lenticular and Stauroneis anceps family (cf. gracilis, vandevijveri), which are characteristic of a silty, shallow freshwater environment (Perren et al, 2012;Wojtal et al, 2014) (Figure 8).…”