Premium
131
New Records of Cyanobacteria from Epilithic Habitats in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Author(s) -
Olsen C. E.,
Johansen J. R.,
Gomez S. R.,
Lowe R. L.,
Casamatta D. A.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of phycology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.85
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1529-8817
pISSN - 0022-3646
DOI - 10.1111/j.0022-3646.2003.03906001_131.x
Subject(s) - national park , biodiversity , biology , ecology , habitat , taxon , lichen
Great Smoky Mountains National Park is home to a diverse collection of plants and animals. The protection that the park provides, along with variations in climate, elevation, and geology supports this high biodiversity. In an effort to record the biodiversity within the park an All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory project was established in 1997. This inventory will serve as a baseline for the biodiversity in the park, and will be used to monitor future environmental impacts. Epilithic algae were collected from sites from Hen Wallow Falls and along Cataloochie Road in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park 5–6 May, 2002. Of the 54 cyanobacteria species identified from Hen Wallow Falls and Cataloochie Road sites, 41 were new species records to the park: 10 Chroococcales, 11 Oscillatoriales, and 20 Nostocales. Some of these did not fit published descriptions based on morphology and may be new to science. Of special interest are several taxa in the Nostocaceae: Anabaena , Trichormus , Nodularia , and Nostoc . A Capsosira species was highly unusual and undoubtedly represents a species new to science. Morphological characterization is complete, and efforts are now being made to characterize 16S rRNA and 16S‐23S ITS regions of selected strains.