The Northernmost Populations of Tetraspora Gelatinosa (Chlorophyta) from Spitsbergen

Abstract

Abstract This article describes the morphological characteristics of the populations of green alga, Tetraspora gelatinosa, growing in the stressful Arctic conditions (77°00’22” N, 015°32’54.33” E). We present the first detailed morphological characteristics of this spe-cies from such a high latitude. Populations from both stagnant and flowing waters were studied. Depending on the type of habitat, their mucilaginous colonies (thalli) have differ-ent shapes, but the structure, size and the placement of the vegetative cells, akinetes and ameboid forms, as well as the pseudocilia morphology of both populations, were very simi-lar. Literature data on the distribution of T. gelatinosa indicate that it is a cosmopolitan spe-cies. Our data are compared with some characteristic features of this species growing in dif-ferent geographical and climatic zones. No significant differences were found in the morphology of the colonies compared, nor in the location and the inner structure of cells. How-ever, there were slight differences in cell size between the populations from warm and cold zones.