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Aulacoseira granulata



caption Aulacoseira (formerly Melosira) granulata is one of the most common diatoms of Lake Kinneret. It is the major phytoplankton biomass contributor in winter (Dec -Feb), when the lake is homothermal and it occupies the entire 43 m water column. At the end of the winter bloom in early March the filaments sink and remain in the sediments in a dormant form with compressed chloroplasts till they are resuspended when the lake destratifies the following fall. It is a relatively large filamentous diatom, with cell diameter of 9 -15 um (median: 12.4 um), cell height of 27-37 um (median: 31 um), and mean cell volume of 3700 um 3. The Kinneret Aulacoseira granulata filaments are straight, typically with 8 - 24 cells per filament. The picture shows the typical equal length marginal spines at the perimeter of the end-cell, these are the so-called inking spines which hold adjacent cells together. The chloroplasts fill the entire cells.
author aalster and tzohary
copyright A Alster & T Zohary, Kinneret Limnological Laboratory, IOLR
observation details click here
image notes Photo taken with an Olympus BX50 Microscope equipped with DIC optics and PixeLink digital camera, mag. X40
image sets   Lake Kinneret planktonic life forms