Very, very interesting

Participated a course arranged by the Finnish Environment Institute on Thursday in Helsinki. Soon we will be able to send the results of our phytoplankton countings to the national database for phtyoplankton, which is again linked to the national database for all the information concerning the surface waters (place, physical and chemical information...). And be able to use this information. And combine the information. On line. Wow!

Inland Water Biology

Found this journal, Inland Water Biology. There are wonderfull photo's of diatoms by S.I. Genkal. And many articles about zooplankton too, this fascinating group that many times is forgotten. What makes it extra interesting on these lati- and longitudes is the fact that many articles deal with Karelian waters.



Take a look!

Speciesism

I often feel quite uncomfortable, when I see some strange green balls under the microscope. If these green algae are the kind that I don't know so well. And if I have difficulties identifying them. So that I don't know in which group they belong to. So that I don't now their background. So that I don't know how I should handle them. It does not feel good.

In these cases there is nothing else for me to do, than to leave them for what they are and call them with a group name, like Chlorophyceae, that covers all the possible green balls. And keep on hoping, that One Day I will find the information to be able to identify them as species and understand their taxonomically right place and their background. That would make me happy. But in the meanwhile I have to be able to stand out the stress of not knowing, not understanding.

In these times, that we are having elections here in Finland and even here the message of extreme right is more and more heard, the thought came into my mind, that people who suffer from a breeze of racism, probably go through same kind of feelings as I do with my little green balls. They must feel uncomfortable and unsecure. Not knowing or understanding.

I do hope that they will stand out the stress.

After all, we all belong to the same Family.

Smells like sh*t

Got this telephone call from a consulting company. There had been complaints that something smelled like cow dung at a lake, so they took a sample from the ice on this lake. The farmers are not yet busy... They could see something in the sample.

I had some difficulties trying to identify the species on the telephone... In the last sample of the year there had been a lot of the diatom Aulacoseira islandica. Perhaps it was that. I asked if they could send me a some of that sample. They could.

This is what I saw:
Aulacoseira indeed. And after a closer look I could be positive, that it is islandica.


Our beloved Astrid Cleve-Euler wrote in 1951 that this species is common and an important algae in the larger, meso- to eutrophic waters. And that it can form blooms in the winter!

Bijkerk et al 1996 write, that A. islandica has it's temperature optimum below 10 degrees and that it needs less light than it's sister A. granulata, for example. If the water is more eutroficated, then A. granulata will probably win.

The smell then. My nose did not detect any odour of dung. Some faint smell of... of... don't know.
Aulacoseira?

Literature:
Bijkerk, Ronald, Joosten, Ton & Koeman Reinoud 1996. Documentatie van centrale diatomeeën uit Nederlandse eutrofe binnenwateren. Koeman en Bijkerk bv, Haren. The Netherlands.
Cleve-Euler, Astrid 1951. Die Diatomeen von Schweden und Finnland. Kungl. Svenska vetenskapsakademiens handlingar. 4. ser. bd. 2, no. 1; 1-163.

The first sample of the year

Went on a ski-tour the other day and found some open water in the middle of the field:
No, that's not me on the photo. It's our beloved dog, Drosjna, 13 years old and still going strong. Here you have a shadow of me:

Was wondering what kind of algae would like to live there. Came back another day with an empty bottle and see here the result:
9-10,5 x 25-34 µm

Navicula's all over, gliding elegantly over the chamber bottom. Have to take a closer look to be able to give these busy fellows a better name. Any suggestions?

U.F.O.

This Unidentified Floating Object does not remain unidentified for a long time, not even for a beginner. At least, if there is some decent literature at hand.




Desmatractum indutum, 9x55 µm.

Looks like an alien space ship. But it is a green-algae: Desmatractum indutum. Belongs to the little family of Treubariaceae. According to Komárek & Fott (1983). And Algaebase. The wonderful Dutch species list - TWN – has another opinion and lifts the Trebouxiophyceae to an own class under the division Chlorophyta. Interesting…

There are more weird little things in this family. What they have in common is that there is a clear distance between the cell wall and the chloroplast. Most common is probably the genus Treubaria, where there are some cosmopolitan species.

According to Komárek & Fott Desmatractum indutum is mostly in small, eutrophic ponds. Hindák (1984) has found it in Slovakian fishponds and Schmidt & Fehér (1999) in some Hungarian waters every now and then. John and Co (2008) don’t mention it in their book about the Algal Flora of the British Isles. Neither does our own Grand Old Plankton Lady, late Toini Tikkanen mention it in her Kasviplanktonopas (1986).

Eyes open guys, it’s not that difficult to see!


Literature:
Hindák, František 1984.
Studies on the chlorococcal algae (Chlorophyceae). III. Biol. Práce., XXX/1, p. 308.

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.

Schmidt, Antal & Fehér Gizella 1998. A zöldalgák Chloroccales rendjének kishatározója 1. 2. (átdolgozott) kiadás. Vízi természet – és környezetvédelem 5. Budapest.

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

I take this as a sign

All right, I will make an appointment. Next week. The first thing.

I have been thinking about going to the hairdresser a couple of weeks already. Maybe it has something to do with a new year beginning, that I want to have something new – if not in, then at least – on my head. Was thinking about a Siimes-look, about 5 mm long hair, but it’s a bit too cold for it at the moment.

Last time I visited a hairdresser is about… must be about four years ago. So, you do understand, that this is not that kind of a decision I make hastily.

And then, yesterday, I saw these with the scope:

and I thought if even the Dictyosphaerium get’s a new, interesting African-look, then – go for it!

A normal Dictyosphaerium looks like this: