Centric diatom communities found in the Antarctic sea ice

Abstract

It has been generally accepted that the ice algal communities are dominated by pennate diatoms in the Arctic and Antarctic seas. However, two ice algal communities found near the Antarctic Continent were dominated by centric diatoms. One sample from the bottom layer of fast ice near Langhovde (69°12′S, 39°37′E) on 12 October, 1970,was dominated by Porosira pseudodenticulata (HUST.) JOUSE. In another sample, Coscinodiscus furcatus KARSTEN was dominant, which was collected from the bottom layer of sea ice near Cape Bird (77°13′S, 166°28′E) on 21 December, 1971. The two centric diatom species were found to form a colony in water mount and seemed to have a nature of sedentary species as well as planktonic characters.