Abstract
Teratological forms of diatoms are non-adaptive phenotypic abnormalities caused by various environmental stresses. Heavy metal contamination and artificial growth conditions are the best known causes. In fact, the recording of abnormal cells in a diatom population or community can give both a temporal and quantitative indication of heavy metal contaminationof water bodies. Moreover, long-term cultures generally present a high percentage of abnormal cells due to the scarcity of nutrients, presence of waste products and osmotic pressure. The aim of this paper is to classify and provide photographic documentation and descriptions of all known teratologies occurring in the most widespread freshwater diatom genera.
Highlights
Morphological variation in diatoms can be both adaptive and non-adaptive in response to environmental conditions
Teratological forms are non-adaptive phenotypic abnormalities usually involving the outline of valves or their striation pattern
The aim of this paper is to fill this gap by providing photographs and specific descriptions encompassing a wide range of teratologies found in a heavy metal-contaminated river and long-term cultures
Summary
Morphological variation in diatoms can be both adaptive and non-adaptive in response to environmental conditions. Teratological forms are non-adaptive phenotypic abnormalities usually involving the outline of valves or their striation pattern. Some alterations, such as those involving valve outlines, are mechanically conveyed during reproduction, giving rise to a population with a different morphology from that of the parental line (Hustedt, 1956). Others, such as structure and distribution of striations, seem to be limited to a few generations. Several papers report a significant positive correlation between the abundance of teratological cells and environmental stresses such as low current velocity and flow, drought conditions, light intensity, increase in temperature (Antoine and Benson-Evans, 1986), decrease in water quality (Gómez and Licursi, 2003) or herbicide contamination (Debenest et al, 2008)
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