Some old and some new friends

Checking the samples this week saw the fine little golden-algae Chrysolykos planctonicus in the Dutch water. In the Finnish waters this species rejoices my days frequently, but not too often in the Low Land waters. This species is one of my all time favorites. Makes me think of a swimming cow, somehow. No wonder it makes me happy.


Chrysolykos plactonicus B. Mack 1951, size about 10-20 micrometers.

According to Tikkanen it is a species mostly occuring in oligotrophic waters. Enough of that in Finland. Even though the limit for biomass for eutrophic water is as low as 2,5 mg/l (Heinonen 1980).

Another source of joy this week were the little, corkscrew-like coiled little fellows, that I’ve untill now only seen in books: Monoraphidium skujae.


Monoraphidium skujae B. Fott 1981, size 1-2,8 wide, lenght up to 17 µm.

There seems to be some uncertainty about this species. Yes, you might point out: which species is without uncertainty? But anyway. Komárek & Fott (1983) wrote in their green-algae-bible that the taxonomic position of this species is still open. Hindák (1988) again wanted to transfer the species to the genus Choricystis. In the Dutch TWN-list of algae species it’s still Monoraphidium, but there they also point out that the name is not valid. Synonym for this species is Selenastrum capricornutum. So, we'll wait and see what the taxonomists come up with.

Now I leave the fascinating world of algae for a day or three and enjoy Christmas. Merry Christmas to everybody!



Literature:
Heinonen, Pertti 1980.
Quantity and composition of phytoplankton in Finnish inland waters = Suomen sisävesien kasviplanktonin määristä ja koostumuksesta. Vesientutkimuslaitoksen julkaisuja – 37. Vesihallitus.

Hindák, František 1988.
Studies on the chlorococcal algae (Chlorophyceae). IV. Biol. Práce., XXXIV/1-2, p. 264.

Komárek J., Fott B.1983
Chlorophyceae (Grünalgen), Ordnung Chlorococcales.. In: Huber-Pestalozzi G. (Ed.): Das Phytoplankton des Süsswassers, Die Binnengewässer 16, 7/1: 1-1044, Schweizerbart Verlag, Stuttgart.

Tikkanen, Toini 1986.
Kasviplanktonopas. Suomen Luonnonsuojeluliiton tuki Oy. Helsinki.

In strange waters again

...after a minor brake I thought I'd start blogging again... 

It sure takes a bit of effort to get used to the Dutch waters again. Seeing different species,  and more rubbish (if you don't mind me being so direct) and last but not least using the very different, less intensive way of counting the samples. 

Why does for example the species Hortobagyiella verrucosa not want to drift in the Finnish waters? Or has somebody seen it here already? 

Now that I come to think about this name, Hortobagyiella ... it probably has something to do with our far-away relatives, the Hungarians. There is this big nature park in Eastern Hungary called Hortobágy (notice the long a and the soft -gy sound). And there was this famous Hungarian algologist called Tibor Hortobágyi, who has written a bunch of algae books. So did the author of the genus Hortobagyiella, L. Hajdú, dedicate this genus to mr. Hortobágyi? Could be. His name is included in several other species too, maybe I'll come back to this interesting subject later.  

I remember when I was for the first time in Hungary, actually quite near this national park and I was thinking where on earth have I heard this name before: Hortobágy... "Is it maybe a name of a famous Hungarian wine?", I wondered. But soon I realised that I 've seen the name many, many times in different algae books.  

This again made me think, how typical a Finn am I actually? If I immediately associate a strange word rather with alcohol than with my beloved algae, I must be a real stereotype for a Finn.