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A standardized method for identifying and counting the vagile and sessile periphyton

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Summary

A technique adapting the traditional “slide method” for quantitative study of periphyton populations is described. A substrate of known area and composition (a microscope slide) is exposed to colonization by periphyton in a body of water. At the end of the exposure time the periphyton is fixed while still on the slide and (as suggested by Bodian) impregnated with protargol. This impregnation reveals clearly all the autotrophic and heterotrophic forms in the periphyton population. The entire population is thus permanently preserved for study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Zoologisches Institut der Universität, D-5300, Bonn, Germany

    Norbert Wilbert

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  1. Norbert Wilbert
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Dedicated to Prof. Rolf Danneel on the occasion of his 75th birthday

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Wilbert, N. A standardized method for identifying and counting the vagile and sessile periphyton. Oecologia 24, 343–347 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00381140

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00381140

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