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The Diatom World pp 385–400Cite as

The Diatom Algae of Lake Kinneret, Israel

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Part of the book series: Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology ((COLE,volume 19))

Abstract

Lake Kinneret lies 210 m below Mediterranean Sea level (MSL) in the northern part of the East African Rift Valley. It is the only freshwater lake in Israel and one of the few natural bodies of freshwater in the Middle East (Pollingher, 1986). The lake acquired its present configuration about 20,000 years ago. Earlier, during the Warm period, a part of the present territory was occupied by the Lisan Lake (Begin et al., 1974). Lake Kinneret is a warm monomictic lake. Full homothermy occurs between December and February and a steady thermocline develops after April. During the stratification period (from May to December), the epilimnion (16–22 m thick, temperature range 15–30°C) is rich in oxygen and poor in nutrients. The hypolimnion is completely devoid of oxygen and rich in sulfides and ammonia. The concentration of nitrogen in the lake water depends mostly on the external input from the Jordan River and is regulated by the pattern and intensity of floods. The concentration of silica is about 10 mg/L, and the concentration of dissolved phosphorus rarely exceeds 10 μg/L (Serruya, 1975; Pollingher et al., 1986).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, 52900, Ramat Gan, Israel

    Yaron Yehoshua

  2. The Yigal Allon Kinneret Limnological Laboratory, Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research Ltd., 447, Migdal, 14950, Israel

    Alla Alster

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Correspondence to Yaron Yehoshua .

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  1. Jerusalem, The Hebrew University Of, P.O.Box 1132, Efrat, 90435, Israel

    Joseph Seckbach

  2. , Dept. Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado Museum of Natural, Henderson Bldg., 15th & Broadway, Boulder, 80309, Colorado, USA

    Patrick Kociolek

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Yehoshua, Y., Alster, A. (2011). The Diatom Algae of Lake Kinneret, Israel. In: Seckbach, J., Kociolek, P. (eds) The Diatom World. Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology, vol 19. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1327-7_17

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