Morphology and distribution of a little known but widespread diatom (Bacillariophyceae), Navicula spartinetensis Sullivan et Reimer

Abstract

Navicula spartinetensis Sullivan et Reimer was originally described from the sediments of a Delaware salt marsh on the east coast of the USA in 1975. This diatom species was first reported from Europe in the Dangast (North Sea) tidal flat sediments using this specific epithet some 30 years later. Further studies have led to its identification in collections from the Atlantic coast of France, the Tagus Estuary in Portugal, the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. A search for illustrations of this species in the available literature on the diatom flora of European coasts was unsuccessful. However, our study of material collected in 1957 from the French Atlantic coast indicates that N. spartinetensis was present in Europe before its formal description. It is likely that N. spartinetensis has been included under the name N. flanatica Grunow in previous studies. No specific statements can be made concerning its biogeography because of the scarcity of floristic studies in marine coastal environments. It appears that at present N. spartinetensis has been collected from the USA and Europe in muddy, estuarine intertidal sediments with or without a vascular plant cover.

Keywords:

• Diatoms (Bacillariophyceae)
• European coasts
• morphology
• Navicula spartinetensis
• Navicula flanatica
• tidal flat
• taxonomy

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Dr Brygida Wawrzyniak-Wydrowska, University of Szczecin, for her assistance with the statistical analyses and Manfred Ruppel, J.-W. Goethe University at Frankfurt am Main, for operating the SEM. We acknowledge professor Maciej Wołowicz (Gdynia), Adrienne Mertens (Aquasense), Dr Marcus Werum (Frankfurt am Main), Renate Lange-Bertalot (Bad Homburg), Ditmar Metzeltin (Hofheim), Monika Auth (Frankfurt am Main) and Joanna Sulikowska (Szczecin) for providing diatom samples, Jean-Marc Guarini (CREMA at L'Houmeau) for providing measurements of environmental variables for the Bay of Marennes-Oléron and Dr Uwe Passauer (Natural History Museum in Vienna) for providing Grunow's original material and drawings. Special thanks are due to Frithjof A.S. Sterrenburg for his critical reading of the manuscript and valuable comments. This paper benefited immensely from the critical and insightful comments of Dr Michel Poulin.