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Sediment samples from the coastal lagoons and estuaries of New York and New Jersey were used to investigate the influence of contaminants on diatom assemblages. Multivariate analyses demonstrated correspondence between composition of diatom assemblages and concentrations of several metals and total PAH. The effects of the individual contaminants were difficult to disentangle because of the considerable correlations between their concentrations. The most conspicuous trend was the increase in the relative abundance of small centric planktonic diatoms in response to contamination and the corresponding decrease in the benthic flora. The high relative abundance of planktonic species on contaminated sediments apparently resulted not so much from their tolerance to pollution, but from the paucity of benthic species. A comparison of the assemblages on the surface and at the depth of approximately 8-10cm revealed a statistically significant temporal change in community composition towards planktonic diatoms., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Microscopic eukaryotes are important components of coastal wetland ecosystems. The goal of this study was to investigate the diversity of microeukaryotes in the tidal pools of a New Jersey salt marsh and to compare the assemblages of natural and artificial pools excavated for controlling mosquito populations. We evaluated microeukaryotic assemblages using the amplicon sequencing of 18S and rbcL DNA markers and the microscopic identification of diatoms in water and sediment samples. 18S unique amplicon sequence variants (ASV) representing ciliates, dinoflagellates, diatoms, and cercozoans were the most diverse, while the reads of dinoflagellates, diatoms, ciliates, and nematodes were the most abundant. The dominant ASVs were attributed to organisms that are characteristic of coastal plankton and sediments or those known for their resistance to salinity, desiccation, hypoxia, and UV stress. The sediment assemblages were more diverse compared to those from the water column and contained a larger portion of ASVs that were not assigned to any low-rank taxa, reflecting the current gaps in understanding the diversity of microeukaryotes. Most taxonomic groups were significantly different in their abundance and composition between natural and artificial pools. Dinoflagellates, haptophytes, chrysophytes, pelagophytes, and raphidophytes—the groups that include a large proportion of mixotrophic taxa and species known for forming harmful algal blooms—were more abundant in the artificial than in the natural pools. Fungi, labyrinthulomycetes, and peronosporomycetes were also more abundant in artificial pools, which may be related to organic matter enrichment. Diatoms and foraminifera showed an opposite trend of higher abundance in natural pools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Six species of large-celled Pinnularia Ehrenberg from lakes of eastern North America, P. dariana (A.W.F. Schmidt) Mills, P. alabamae Krammer, P. bihastata (A. Mann) R.M. Patrick, P. torta (A. Mann) R.M. Patrick, P. rexlowei sp. nov. and P. spinifera sp. nov. are investigated with light and scanning electron microscopy. All six species are shown to possess marginal spines, a trait sporadically encountered in Pinnularia and generally rare in raphid diatoms. Besides having spines, the six species differ in their frustular morphology, including appearance and position of spines. We summarize data on their ecology and distribution using a set of 702 sediment core samples from 424 lakes from eastern USA and Canada. Pinnularia rexlowei is only known from Quaternary lacustrine deposits in the State of Connecticut and from the surface and subfossil sediments of two lakes in northeastern USA. The other five species are relatively common, and at least one species of spine-bearing Pinnularia was found in 34% of studied lakes. Pinnularia dariana and P. torta reach as far north as Labrador, while P. alabamae, P. bihastata and P. spinifera were only encountered south of Canada. Pinnularia alabamae and P. spinifera are characteristic for lakes with relatively soft and slightly acidic water, while P. bihastata, P. dariana and P. torta are found in a wider range of physico-chemical conditions, including alkaline and eutrophic lakes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the warm middle Eocene (ca 45 Ma), the Napartulik area (also called 'the Geodetic Hills'), Axel Heiberg Island, northern Canada (Nunavut), was vegetated with mixed broad-leaved deciduous angiosperm and evergreen conifer forests over extensive floodplain and forested wetland habitats. Massive organic rich sedimentary successions and encapsulated in-situ tree trunks suggest these forests were drowned by frequent flooding events. The sedimentary layers contain sub-fossil amber that was produced by representatives of the Pinaceae such as Pseudolarix. The amber offered an opportunity to investigate aerial plankton and thus the chance to discover microfossils, which could provide evidence of biotic interactions associated with, or the cause of, the forest die-offs. Fifty-four amber samples were subjected to a solvent treatment for microfossil extraction followed by light microscopy, resulting in the discovery of several hundred microfossils. Unexpectedly, one-quarter of the microfossils were diatoms, which may predominantly have lived on the tree bark. Fungal spores were rare, and the pollen grains found corroborated earlier findings in litter or coal. The records of fungal spores and arthropod remains were insignificant and could, therefore, not substantially have been contributing to the forest die-offs. More resin analyses from the complete sedimentary profile would be needed to get a clearer picture of putative forest pests and prevailing environmental conditions [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sediment diatoms are widely used to track environmental histories of lakes and their watersheds, but merging datasets generated by different researchers for further large-scale studies is challenging because of taxonomic discrepancies caused by rapidly evolving diatom nomenclature and taxonomic concepts. We collated five datasets of lake sediment diatoms from the Northeastern USA using a harmonization process which included updating synonyms, tracking the identity of inconsistently identified taxa, and grouping those that could not be resolved taxonomically. Each harmonization step led to an increase in variation explained by environmental variables and a parallel reduction of variation attributable to taxonomic inconsistency. To maximize future use of the data and underlying specimens we provide the original and harmonized counts for 1327 core samples from 607 lakes, name translation schemes, sample metadata, specimen museum locations, and the Northeast Lakes Voucher Flora, which is a set of light microscope images grouped into 1154 morphological operational taxonomic units. Post-hoc harmonization enables data quality control when other approaches (e.g., upfront management of taxonomic consistency) are not possible. Measurement(s) diatom taxa • abundance Technology Type(s) observation • literature review • digital curation Sample Characteristic - Organism Bacillariophyta Sample Characteristic - Environment Lakes Sample Characteristic - Location Northeastern Unites States of America [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new species of Aulacoseira Thwaites is described from sediment deposits of Surprise Lake, an isolated lake located in the New Jersey Highlands. The species is characterized by (1) a low mantle, (2) unevenly distributed mantle areolae of variable size and shape, and (3) a valve face covered by rounded areolae. The new species is most similar to Aulacoseira biseriata (Grunow in Van Heurk) Houk, R. Klee & H. Tanaka. Both taxa possess frustules with mantles that are low, with irregular pervalvar rows or scattered areolae. However, the two species differ in the shape and pattern of the areolae, the shape and structure of the mantle wall, the shape and depth of the ringleist, and other morphological features. In this study, we present light and scanning electron microscopic images of the new species and compare it to the most similar taxa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stauroneis terryi D.B. Ward ex T.C. Palmer is a diatom so far reported from only five locations in the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts and Maine, USA, where it was collected in 1890—1911. There were no records of this large and rather conspicuous species in any collections made after 1911 despite the considerable number of diatom surveys and paleolimnological studies conducted in the northeastern USA. We studied material from the type locality of this species to document its morphology with SEM, and screened diatom slides representing recent and subfossil samples collected from 169 lakes in northeastern North America from 1979 to 2017 for the presence of this species. Using both whole-slide scanning and traditional microscopy, we detected S. terryi in 15 lakes in the northeastern USA north of 41° N latitude and in five lakes of Labrador and adjacent Quebec, Canada. In the USA, S. terryi populations have declined since pre-industrial times, although the species is still present in a few lakes with relatively undisturbed watersheds. Our observations demonstrate the value of museum collections for generating data on diatom ecology and biogeography and the need for the development of high-throughput methods of extracting information from diatom slides and images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cyclotella lacuskarluki Manguin ex Kociolek & Reviers is a small diatom known only from the original drawing that provides little information on the morphology of this taxon. As Manguin's original materials are lost, recently collected samples from Lake Karluk, Alaska, the type locality of the species, were studied with light and scanning electron microscopy to determine its identity. As a result of this investigation, C. lacuskarluki is transferred here to the genus Discostella. Discostella lacuskarluki is 2.5–7 µm in diameter, has a shallow mantle, a stellar pattern of alveoli in the valve centre that may be reduced or completely absent, bifurcating costae and 4–5 marginal fultoportulae opening externally by short thickened tubes with round openings. We observed this species in numerous lakes across Alaska, in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, in several lakes across Canada, and in tundra and tree-line lakes of Northeastern Siberia. Although direct comparison with other Discostella species is difficult because the small size of these diatoms requires high-resolution imagery to reveal ultrastructural details, it appears that D. lacuskarluki is conspecific with D. tatrica Procházková et al. recently described from lakes of Central Europe and also reported from the European part of Russia. It is also conspecific with D. nipponica (Skvotzov) Tuji & D. M. Williams known from Japan. The apparent wide distributional range of this species indicates that it has been overlooked and commonly reported as D. pseudostelligera or D. stelligera in arctic, boreal and alpine lakes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The genus Krsticiella Levkov was previously known only from the basins of Lakes Ohrid and Prespa, and from Lake Baikal. Examination of type materials of diatoms originally described by Niels Foged from the North Slope of Alaska revealed that Navicula lenis Foged and N. meadeensis Foged belong to Krsticiella, to which they are formally transferred here. One of these species, K. lenis, is also found in thermokarst tundra lakes of the Kolyma Lowland in Northeastern Siberia. Several illustrations in previously published floras of Pliocene and Pleistocene diatoms of Eurasia indicate wider past distributions of Krsticiella species. The current restriction of this genus to non-glaciated regions of the Arctic and large ancient lakes in temperate zone indicates that it is a Cenozoic relict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and aims - A novel species of Navicula has been recently discovered in rivers of the central Appalachian Mountains, USA. The purpose of this paper is to formally establish this new species and to determine whether it had been overlooked in the past or is a recent arrival to the area. Methods - We studied historical collections made in Pennsylvania, Virginia and adjacent areas since the 1940s and housed at the ANSP Diatom Herbarium. Light and scanning electron microscopy was employed to study the morphology of the new species and similar Navicula taxa, including those commonly reported at the same locations, or originally described from the rivers of the eastern United States, such as N. radiosafallax, initially established as N. radiosa var. parva by J.H. Wallace. Key results - The new species has an unusual shape of the external raphe slit, which is undulate toward the proximal ends. This character was so far found in a single other Navicula species known only from Europe. Examination of historical materials confirmed that N. eileeniae was absent from collections made in the eastern United States before 2007, but has become progressively more common and abundant in the last decade. The prevalence of this species in streams of low to moderate mineral and nutrient content suggests that its recent expansion cannot be explained by pollution. Climate change is also unlikely to have caused the northward expansion of N. eileeniae, as it has never been recorded south from central Appalachia. Conclusions - The results of this study confirm that a population of previously unknown Navicula species has been expanding in Central Appalachia and suggest that rapid shifts of distributional ranges not readily explainable by environmental changes may occur in protists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three rare Psammothidium species were found in recently surveyed lakes of Northeastern Siberia, Russia. One of these species found in lakes of the Kolyma Lowland, is new for science and is formally described here as Psammothidium onufrii sp. nov. It is morphologically similar to the brackish–water species Achnanthes punctulata, but it lacks a central area on rapheless valve and possesses a large central area on the raphe valve. Psammothidium onufrii is characteristic for tundra thermokarst lakes with moderate mineral content. Psammothidium sacculum previously reported from a few subarctic and arctic locations was found in several lakes of the Kolyma Lowland and of the Magadan District. The frustule ultrastructure of this species is documented for the first time here. The third species, known as Achnanthes obliqua (W. Gregory) Hustedt and transferred here to Psammothidium, is a morphologically distinct and relatively rare diatom occasionally reported from northern regions of Eurasia and Western North America. In Northeastern Siberia it was found in sediments of relatively large shallow lakes with low to moderate mineral content. Detailed morphological characterization of the three Psammothidium species will facilitate their detection in environmental surveys and their use in paleoenvironmental reconstructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim Establishing the distribution and diversity of populations in the early stages of invasion when populations are at low abundance is a core challenge for conservation biologists. Recently, genetic monitoring for environmental DNA (e DNA) has become an effective approach for the early detection of invaders, especially for microscopic organisms where visual detection is challenging. Didymosphenia geminata is a globally distributed freshwater diatom that shows a recent emergence of nuisance blooms, but whose native versus exotic status in different areas has been debated. We address the hypothesis that the distribution and genetic diversity of D. geminata in eastern North America is related to the recent introduction of non-native lineages, and contrast that with the alternative hypothesis that D. geminata is cryptically native to the region (i.e. at low abundance) and only forms nuisance blooms when triggered by a change in environment. Location The Mid-Atlantic region of North America. Methods We analysed 118 stream samples for D. geminata e DNA, validated our results for a subset of sites using direct visual enumeration by microscopy and used molecular cloning to sequence D. geminata from two sites where e DNA was detected. Results (1) D. geminata e DNA was detected at seven spatially unique sites, six of which were previously documented to contain recent D. geminata blooms. (2) Sites where D. geminata e DNA was detected exhibited no difference in environmental conditions compared to sites with no-detected D. geminata e DNA. (3) Sequencing of D. geminata e DNA showed that blooms were composed of multiple genetic lineages, closely related to those sampled elsewhere across the globe. Main conclusions We interpret these results as most consistent with the hypothesis that D. geminata is an exotic invader in the Mid-Atlantic region, still in its early stages of invasion; thus, genetic monitoring and management efforts may still be effective at controlling its spread. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Diatoms from the genus Achnanthidium are abundant in rivers, streams, and springs of the Appalachian Mountains. They inhabit clean and polluted waters, including those affected by acid mine drainage. The identification of Achnanthidium taxa is difficult due to their small cell size and insufficient information in the diatom floras. We studied the taxonomy and ecology of Achnanthidium in Appalachian rivers by analyzing a data set of benthic diatom samples and corresponding water chemistry data collected during several water-quality surveys from 181 sampling sites. Ten species were identified using scanning electron and light microscopy: A. alpestre (Lowe & Kociolek) Lowe & Kociolek, A. atomus (Hustedt) Monnier, Lange-Bertalot, & Ector, A. deflexum (Reimer) Kingston, A. duthii (Sreenivasa) Edlund, A. eutrophilum (Lange-Bertalot) Lange-Bertalot, A. cf. gracillimum (Meister) Lange-Bertalot, A. cf. latecephalum Kobayasi, A. minutissimum (Kützing) Czarnecki (sensu lato), A. reimeri (Camburn) comb. nov., and A. rivulare Potapova & Ponader. The distribution of common taxa in relation to water chemistry was studied by fitting non-parametric regression models (generalized additive models, GAM, and non-parametric multiplicative regression models, NPMR) to species relative abundances. Studied Achnanthidium species differed considerably in their responses to water chemistry. These results suggest that species-level identifications will lead to more accurate bioassessments. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Variation of frustular morphology within the Achnanthidium minutissimum (Kütz.) Czarn. species complex was studied in type populations of 12 described taxa and in 30 recent North American river samples. The SEM observations in this study and other publications showed that ultrastructural characters on their own do not discriminate among taxa within the A. minutissimum complex. Therefore, an attempt was made to use other characters, such as valve shape and striation pattern, to delineate morphological groups. The sliding-landmarks method was used to obtain valve-shape descriptors. These shape variables were combined with conventional morphological characters in multivariate analyses. It was shown that some historically recognized taxa are morphologically distinct, while others are difficult to differentiate. Morphological grouping of “old” taxa most similar to A. minutissimum did not correspond to their taxonomic hierarchy in contemporary diatom floras. Morphometric analysis of a data set of 728 specimens from North American rivers revealed six morphological groups, although it was impossible to draw clear boundaries among them. These morphological groups differed significantly in their ecological characteristics and could be recommended as indicators of water quality. Application of the discriminant function analysis based on shape variables and striation pattern showed that North American specimens could be more consistently classified into the six groups identified in our analysis than into historically recognized taxa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Variation of frustular morphology within the Achnanthidium minutissimum (Kütz.) Czarn. species complex was studied in type populations of 12 described taxa and in 30 recent North American river samples. The SEM observations in this study and other publications showed that ultrastructural characters on their own do not discriminate among taxa within the A. minutissimum complex. Therefore, an attempt was made to use other characters, such as valve shape and striation pattern, to delineate morphological groups. The sliding-landmarks method was used to obtain valve-shape descriptors. These shape variables were combined with conventional morphological characters in multivariate analyses. It was shown that some historically recognized taxa are morphologically distinct, while others are difficult to differentiate. Morphological grouping of “old” taxa most similar to A. minutissimum did not correspond to their taxonomic hierarchy in contemporary diatom floras. Morphometric analysis of a data set of 728 specimens from North American rivers revealed six morphological groups, although it was impossible to draw clear boundaries among them. These morphological groups differed significantly in their ecological characteristics and could be recommended as indicators of water quality. Application of the discriminant function analysis based on shape variables and striation pattern showed that North American specimens could be more consistently classified into the six groups identified in our analysis than into historically recognized taxa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Two major arguments in favor of using diatoms in water-quality assessments are that their distributions are cosmopolitan and their ecology is well studied. If these assumptions are true, diatom-based monitoring tools could be considered universal and used in any geographic area. Indeed, some diatom metrics based on species indicator values developed in Europe are often used in North America and many other parts of the world. There is considerable evidence, however, that diatom metrics are less useful when applied in a geographic area other than where species relations with environmental characteristics were originally studied to construct the metrics. We used U.S. Geological Survey National Water-Quality Assessment program data to create diatom metrics for monitoring eutrophication, and show here that these metrics provide better assessments in U.S. rivers than similar metrics developed for European inland waters. We also demonstrate that metrics developed by studying diatom–nutrient relationships on the continental-scale can be further refined if combined with regional-scale studies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary 1. We quantified the relationships between diatom relative abundance and water conductivity and ionic composition, using a dataset of 3239 benthic diatom samples collected from 1109 river sites throughout the U.S.A. [U.S. Geological Survey National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program dataset]. This dataset provided a unique opportunity to explore the autecology of freshwater diatoms over a broad range of environmental conditions. 2. Conductivity ranged from 10 to 14 500 μS cm-1 , but most of the rivers had moderate conductivity (interquartile range 180–618 μS cm-1 ). Calcium and bicarbonate were the dominant ions. Ionic composition, however, varied greatly because of the influence of natural and anthropogenic factors. 3. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) and Monte Carlo permutation tests showed that conductivity and abundances of major ions (HCO&formmu0; + CO&formmu1;, Cl- , SO&formmu2;, Ca2+ , Mg2+ , Na+ , K+ ) all explained a statistically significant amount of the variation in assemblage composition of benthic diatoms. Concentrations of HCO&formmu3; + CO&formmu4; and Ca2+ were the most significant sources of environmental variance. 4. The CCA showed that the gradient of ionic composition explaining most variation in diatom assemblage structure ranged from waters dominated by Ca2+ and HCO&formmu5; + CO&formmu6; to waters with higher proportions of Na+ , K+ , and Cl- . The CCA also revealed that the distributions of some diatoms correlated strongly with proportions of individual cations and anions, and with the ratio of monovalent to divalent cations. 5. We present species indicator values (optima) for conductivity, major ions and proportions of those ions. We also identify diatom taxa characteristic of specific major-ion chemistries. These species optima may be useful in future interpretations... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The large variation in size and shape in diatoms is shown by morphometric measurements of 515 benthic and pelagic diatom species from the Baltic Sea area. The largest mean cell dimension (mostly the apical axis) varied between 4.2 and 653 μm, cell surface area between 55 and 344,000 μm2 , and cell volume between 21 and 14.2 × 106 μm3 . The shape-related index, length to width ratio, was between 1.0 and 63.3 and the shape- and size-related index, surface area to volume ratio, was between 0.02 and 3.13. Diatom community analysis by multivariate statistics is usually based on counts of a fixed number of diatom valves with species scores irrespective of cell size. This procedure underestimates the large species for two reasons. First, the importance of a species with higher cell volume is usually larger in a community. Second, larger species usually have lower abundances and their occurrence in the diatom counts is stochastic. This article shows that co-occurring small and large diatom species can respond very differently to environmental constraints. Large epiphytic diatoms responded most to macroalgal host species and small epiphytic diatoms most to environmental conditions at the sampling site. Large epilithic diatoms responded strongly to salinity, whereas small epilithic diatoms did so less clearly. The conclusion is that different scale-dependent responses are possible within one data set. The results from the test data also show that important ecological information from diatom data can be missed when the large species are neglected or underestimated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We studied how size variation in populations of Diatoma moniliformis Kitz, was influenced by environmental effects on the diatom life cycle. One of the two populations sampled monthly in the northern Baltic Sea grew under natural conditions; the other population was in a cooling water discharge changed of a nuclear power plant, where the temperature and flow rate of the water were artificially higher. The life cycle was synchronous at the natural site, with sexual reproduction accuning in the winter; most of the initial cells were found in March-April. After this, a reduction in cell size occurred, and the vegetative life cycle consisted of two parts. During the first part, cell volume decreased, whereas the surface area to volume ratio increased, and during the second part of the cycle, both of these parameters decreased. No direct evidence was found for the existence of a supra-annual life cycle in D. moniliformis, as convincing modes for large cells were lacking in the size-frequency distributions. It was concluded from extrapolations of the data that the natural life cycle of D. moniliformis probably lasts 2 or 3 years. The changes in cell proportions during the life cycle fit well with included from extrapolations of the data that the natural life cycle of D. moniliformis probably lasts 2 or 3 years. The changes in cell proportions during the life cycle fit well with annual growth cycle of D. moniliformis at the natural site (i.e. the cells had high surface area to volume ratios during the period of optimal growth in late spring (May-June) At the site affected by cooling water discharge, the synchronization of the natural life cycle was disrupted, but some seasonal size variation did occur. Under natural conditions, auxosporulation is probably triggered by a combination of small cell size, low water temperature (0.3°C), and rapidly increasing light intensity or daylength in late winter to early spring. When these conditions were not met (e.g. at the heated site, the required low temperature was absent), auxosporulation did not occur simultaneously. This paper also presents scanning electron photomicrographs showing the typical shape and fine structure of the initial cell of D. moniliformis. These cells are semispherical in cross section, possess a pronounced curvature along the longitudinal axis, and are bent on the pervatuar plane. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The large variation in size and shape in diatoms is shown by morphometric measurements of 515 benthic and pelagic diatom species from the Baltic Sea area. The largest mean cell dimension (mostly the apical axis) varied between 4.2 and 653 μm, cell surface area between 55 and 344,000 μm2 , and cell volume between 21 and 14.2 × 106 μm3 . The shape-related index, length to width ratio, was between 1.0 and 63.3 and the shape- and size-related index, surface area to volume ratio, was between 0.02 and 3.13. Diatom community analysis by multivariate statistics is usually based on counts of a fixed number of diatom valves with species scores irrespective of cell size. This procedure underestimates the large species for two reasons. First, the importance of a species with higher cell volume is usually larger in a community. Second, larger species usually have lower abundances and their occurrence in the diatom counts is stochastic. This article shows that co-occurring small and large diatom species can respond very differently to environmental constraints. Large epiphytic diatoms responded most to macroalgal host species and small epiphytic diatoms most to environmental conditions at the sampling site. Large epilithic diatoms responded strongly to salinity, whereas small epilithic diatoms did so less clearly. The conclusion is that different scale-dependent responses are possible within one data set. The results from the test data also show that important ecological information from diatom data can be missed when the large species are neglected or underestimated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]