DIATOM INCREASE IN PHYTOPLANKTON COMMUNITY OBSERVED IN WINTER IN THE NORTH-EASTERN MARMARA SEA (BEYLIKDÜZÜ)

Diatom increase in phytoplankton community observed in winter in the north-eastern Marmara Sea (Beylikdüzü)

Erdogan Okus, Seyfettin Taş

Istanbul University, Institute of Marine Sciences and Management, Muskule Sok. No.1, Vefa 34470 Istanbul, TURKEY

Abstract

In this study, a diatom increase in the phytoplankton community in the north-east part of Sea of Marmara was observed in winter (upper layer water temperature between 7-9°C and salinity between 22-24 psu). In the water samples were determined a total of 45 phytoplankton taxa from the four algae classes. Most of these taxa (94 %) were composed of dinoflagellates and diatoms and other organisms parts were silicoflagellates and euglenoid flagellate species. The most common species from diatoms were Proboscia alata f. alata (Brightwell) Sundström, from dinoflagellates Ceratium fusus (Ehrenberg) Dujardin. The diatom Proboscia alata f. alata was quantitatively the dominant species in the phytoplankton community. The highest cell density was measured about 185 x 10cells l-1.It is noticeable that diatoms were more dominant than other phytoplankton species.

Keywords: Phytoplankton, diatom, Proboscia alata, north-eastern Marmara Sea

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