Public alien observations

Finland’s environmental administration asks people to inform the authorities about their observations on alien species. In the Baltic Sea, that is.

With more information on the species the authorities can plan the steps needed to be taken, if there are any. To make it as easy as possible, there is even a form on the net one can fill in in case of an alien observation. As far as I could find out, the form was only in Finnish. There are quite a few Swedish speaking citizens living on the coast, with a large knowlegde of the sea and it's life. I hope they find their way to the form too.

Further information about the alien species in the Baltic Sea one can find on the Baltic Sea Alien Species Database

Getting ready for the Baltic Sea

Visited Mrs. Terttu Finni in Helsinki yesterday. We had a fine day looking at the samples from the coastal waters of the brackish Baltic Sea with her the microscope. Went through the most common species and dicussed almost 50 taxa. I kind of like Chaetoceros-species. The first step towards counting Baltic Sea phytoplankton is taken.

The Finnish algae list

Last weeks Thursday and Friday we had the annual autumn meeting of the Finnish algologists. This time in Heureka, the Finnish Science Center in Vantaa, near Helsinki. Most of the time of the 15 or so algologists gathered went on checking the blue-greens on the national algae list: the names, volumes, taxonomy. A couple of totally new taxa was dealed with as well. We also discussed the exact meaning of the word coenobia.

I learned that checking the algae list here in Finland is very much done by the algae counters themselves, on a voluntary basis. This can be a very productive way of working. Let's just hope the taxonomy does not suffer under these circumstances.

Nordic Microalgae II

Started to contribute photo's on the fine site Nordic Microalgae. Do have a look.

The function of a heterocyst

Visited the university library in Turku and borrowed this book "Cyanophyta" from T.V. Desikachary, 1959. Still busy with the Cyanos after the Determination Course in Czech Republic...

It was very interesting to get some perspective in the study of Cyanos. Was reading the chapter Heterocysts and I realized that back in 1959 it was not yet clear what the function of heterocysts was. Different functions were suggested: store houses for food material, reproductive bodies, producing of gas vacuoles, secreting a growth stimulating substance.

The most surprising thing was that the germination of heterocysts was described by many researchers, even Geitler himself. I do wonder what they have really seen??

A bit earlier it was stated in the book that "certain blue-green algae have now been shown to be definitely able to fix atmospheric nitrogen". But in 1959 they had not yet combined these two thing, heterocysts and nitrogen fixation.

I wonder when and who actually did this?


Literature
Desikachary, T.V. (1959). Cyanophyta. pp. i-x, 1-686, 139 pls. New Delhi: Indian Council of Agricultural Research.