Mat thickness associated with Didymosphenia geminata and Cymbella sp. in the southern rivers of Chile
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Ecology, Freshwater Biology
- Keywords
- nuisance diatoms, microalgae, stalk, mucilage tubes
- Copyright
- © 2018 Zamorano et al.
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2018. Mat thickness associated with Didymosphenia geminata and Cymbella sp. in the southern rivers of Chile. PeerJ Preprints 6:e26926v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.26926v1
Abstract
Didymosphenia geminata is a diatom that can alter aquatic systems. According to the international literature, chemical and hydraulic factors have a greater influence on the proliferation of D. geminata, but the study of other microalgae that could be associated with it has been poorly addressed. The objective of this study is to evaluate the relationship between the structure of mat thickness D. geminata and another taxon that produces mucilage, Cymbella sp., while also considering physical and chemical factors. To do this, two samples were taken, one in the spring of 2013 and the other in the autumn of 2014, from eight rivers in central-southern Chile-South America, where the benthic community was characterized and the thickness of the mat was measured. The results indicate that in the presence of both taxa the thickness of the mat layer is doubled. However, antecedents suggest that D. geminata is the main producer of mucilage, being seconded by Cymbella sp. The present study contributes evidence about the relationship between mat thickness D. geminata and other microalgae contribution, and aquatic condition for this development.
Author Comment
This is a submission to PeerJ for review.
Supplemental Information
Dataset used in analysis
ID , numerical indentification; season, season of sampling (S=spring, A=autumn); river, river name; altitude, m.a.s.l.; east , WGS 84 - UTM 19s; north , WGS 84 - UTM 19s; date, date of sampling; temp.w , °C; ph, unity; CE , µS/cm; Osat, %; other chemical variables in mg/l; prof , cm; depth.vel, m/s; density, total cel/mm3; richness, species number; cymbella.sp , cel/mm3; d.geminata, cel/mm3; mat.thick, cm.