Alkaline soda Lake Velika Rusanda (Serbia): the first insight into diatom diversity of this extreme saline lake
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2019
Authors
Vidaković, Danijela
Krizmanić, Jelena

Dojčinović, Biljana

Pantelić, Ana

Gavrilović, Bojan

Živanović, Milica
Novaković, Boris
Ćirić, Miloš

Article (Published version)

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Show full item recordAbstract
Alkaline soda lakes are unique habitats found in specific geographic regions, usually with dry climate. The Carpathian Basin
is one of those regions very important for habitat and biodiversity conservation in Europe, with natural soda lakes found in
Austria, Hungary and Serbia. In comparison to other two countries from Central Europe, algal biodiversity studies of saline
soda lakes in Serbia are scarce. Lake Velika Rusanda has the highest measured salinity of all saline lakes in the Carpathian
Basin and there were no reports of its diatom species richness and diversity till now. We conducted 2-year investigation
programme to study biodiversity and seasonal dynamics of diatoms in this lake. A total of 27 diatom taxa were found, almost
all of them attached to reed and much less in benthos and plankton. Five new diatom species for Serbia were recorded, Craticula
halopannonica, Navicymbula pusilla, Hantzschia weyprechtii, Nitzschia thermaloides and Navicula staffordiae. The
last me...ntioned is new for Europe as well. Lake Velika Rusanda is inhabited mostly by alkaliphilous and halophilic diatoms.
Since diatoms are used as bioindicators in soda lakes, our results will improve their further application in ecological status
assessment of these fragile habitats in the Carpathian Basin.
Keywords:
The Carpathian Basin / Soda waters / Velika Rusanda / saline lakes / salinitySource:
Extremophiles, 2019, 23, 3, 347-357Publisher:
- Springer Nature Publishing AG
Projects:
DOI: 10.1007/s00792-019-01088-6
ISSN: 1433-4909 (Online); 1431-0651 (Print)