excess Cladophora and Spirogyra are typical indicators of excess n or p pollution. however, there is a government publication that outlines the taxonomy of water quality agal indicators. its a big book, and I have forgotten the title, cerainly a phycologist or limnologist might be familiar with it. try contact Dr. Peterson at Eastern IL U. He is a phycologist and likely knows the title as I think he handed out photocopies of parts of it back when I took his phycology class years ago! ::)
M On Wed, Jul 15, 2009 at 8:54 PM, Conor Flynn<conorrobertfl...@gmail.com> wrote: > My research concerns human impacts on freshwater wetland ecosystems. I > have worked with several protocols in the field, all of which included > indicators of ecosystem health such as presence/abundance of algae. > > In particular, an abundance of filamentous algae is taken to indicate > unnatural nutrient loading and hence unnaturally anaerobic conditions. > But how much is too much? Is this a simple "field-crew friendly" > indicator, or will it be necessary to learn a lot more about algae before > using them as proxies for O2 depletion? Are some algae more "unnatural" > than others? > > I have noticed non-filamentous types of algae (growing on underwater rocks > or drying on shore) and wonder if they also indicate either nutrient > loading and/or anaerobic conditions. It might also be important to > determine suitable algae habitat before assuming that their absence > indicates an absence of excess nutrients; some streams are just too > turbulent, while others may be too dark, to support algae. Can anyone > briefly describe (or point me to a resource describing) the habitat and > functional importance of different freshwater algae? > -- Malcolm L. McCallum Associate Professor of Biology Texas A&M University-Texarkana Editor, Herpetological Conservation and Biology http://www.herpconbio.org http://www.twitter.com/herpconbio Fall Teaching Schedule & Office Hours: Landscape Ecology: T,R 10-11:40 pm Environmental Physiology: MW 1-2:40 pm Seminar: T 2:30-3:30pm Genetics: M 6-10pm Office Hours: M 3-6, T: 12-2, W: 3-4 1880's: "There's lots of good fish in the sea" W.S. Gilbert 1990's: Many fish stocks depleted due to overfishing, habitat loss, and pollution. 2000: Marine reserves, ecosystem restoration, and pollution reduction MAY help restore populations. 2022: Soylent Green is People! Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message.
