Abstract
One of the most striking phytoplankton species in the Northwest African upwelling area is the diatom Thalassiosira partheneia Schrader. This diatom forms colonies of up to 5 cm length, which are visible from the ship. In the euphotic zone 10 to 50 or more colonies can be found in 1 l of sea water. Each colony consists of from several hundred to 25,000 cells, each cell being between 7 and 15 µ in diameter. The majority of the cells have a diameter of 8 to 10 µ. Some 8 to 128 individual cells are connected by a thicker central thread to chains similar to other Thalassiosira species, but in addition, the many marginal threads coming out of the marginal strutted processes of each cell are twisted, and thus connect one chain to the other, building a tube-like colony with a diameter of up to 1 cm. Mucus, which was described for this species in the original description (Schrader, 1972) was absent, as revealed by light microscopy of living colonies on board the ship.
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Elbrächter, M., Boje, R. (1978). On the Ecological Significance of Thalassiosira partheneia in the Northwest African Upwelling Area. In: Boje, R., Tomczak, M. (eds) Upwelling Ecosystems. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-66985-9_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-66985-9_4
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