Morphology and molecular phylogeny of Amphora baotuensis sp. nov., a new freshwater benthic diatom from a karst spring in China

Abstract

A new freshwater benthic diatom Amphora baotuensis is described from a karst spring in China, based on morphological and molecular phylogenetic data. Based on SSU rRNA and rbcL sequences the molecular phylogeny indicates that this species is closely related to A. copulata (Kützing) Schoeman & Archibald within the Amphora sensu stricto clade. Amphora baotuensis differs from congeners by a combination of morphological features including smaller cell size, a wide, rectangular to fan-shaped dorsal fascia, a well-developed raphe ledge on the ventral side and uniseriate ventral striae.

Keywords:

• Amphora baotuensis
• diatom
• new species
• Baotu spring
• Jinan karst springs

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to three anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions in refining this paper. The authors also thank Hitachi High-Tech Science Park Shanghai Lab for allowing us to use the Hitachi Regulus 8240 SEM.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1080/0269249X.2022.2063390.

Additional information

Funding

This work has been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31800171) and the CAS President’s International Fellowship for Visiting Scientists (No. 2018VBA0035).