Flora of Algae and Cyanobacteria of Continental Waters of Israel in the XXI Century: Taxonomy, Autecology and Water Quality Indicators

Abstract

The article presents a list of algal species and cyanobacteria found in the continental waters of Israel in 1898–2022. Research progressed in 2000–2022 by increasing the list from 1261 to 1628 species belonging to fourteen phyla. Taxonomic analysis shows that diatoms, cyanobacteria, and green algae predominated. The first-time data has been synthesized to identify the indicator properties of Israel’s aquatic flora carried out on algae and cyanobacteria, which can be used to monitor water quality. The species’ ecological preferences are given for ten environmental variables: substrate preference, temperature, oxygen saturation with water mobility, water pH preferences, water salinity, organic pollution according to Watanabe and Sládeček with species-specific index of saprobity S, trophic state, and type of nutrition (autotrophic or heterotrophic). This list of species with indicator values for each species is used to characterize the water properties in Israel. In addition, it can be applied to assess the state of aquatic ecosystems and monitor water quality based on bioindication methods.

The first records of Cyanobacteria diversity in the benthos of the Israeli Coast of the Mediterranean Sea

“…Also, four in dicator species were identified, which are freshwater ones. All of this probably indicates the migration of freshwater species into the Israeli coastal zone with continental waters, in which there are 432 cyanobacterial species in total (Barinova & Smith 2022).…”

“…However, our data on the benthic cyanobacteria of the Israeli coast are new. Thus, the list of identified dominant cyanobacteria on the sea coast differs from that in freshwater bodies, where Phormidium, Oscillatoria, Microcystis, Merismopedia and Apha no cap sa (Barinova 2020, Barinova & Smith 2022 prevail.…”

“…Contrarily, benthic marine macroalgae have been studied in Israel for many years and are represented by 160 species from three taxonomic phyla (Einav & Isra el 2008). The large-scale research of cyanobacteria in continental waters of Israel showed that this group is do minant along with diatoms and green microalgae, totaling 432 spe cies (Barinova et al 2022). Despite the above-mentioned facts, there are no studies on the diversity of benthic marine cyano bacteria on the Israeli coast of the Mediterranean Sea.…”

Benthic Diatoms on Macrophytes of the Israeli Mediterranean Coast

“…A list of algal species and cyanobacteria found in the continental waters of Israel in 1898-2022 with progress in 2000-2022 increased from 1261 to 1628 species which belong to 14 taxonomic phyla. Taxonomic analysis shows that diatoms, cyanobacteria, and green algae predominate in continental waters of this region [15]. Seaweed, microalgae, and cyanobacteria are known to be important biological indicators of pollution and saprobity of water [16][17][18][19][20], which can be used to assess the quality of water.…”

“…Thus, this study, for the first time for Israeli coastal waters of the Mediterranean Sea, will synthesize data on the taxonomic composition, floristics, and ecology of benthic diatoms to identify indicator properties of Israeli aquatic flora that can be used to monitor the quality of coastal waters. For continental waters, ecological preferences of species are known for ten environmental variables [15]. But the identification of indicator algae for the marine environment is at an initial stage.…”