Abstract
The cyanobacterial flora of maritime Antarctica appears to contain many endemic species and only few cosmopolitan or wider-distributed taxa. Several morphospecies that have been erroneously identified in the past following available keys from temperate or tropical zones belong in fact to little-known and poorly described Antarctic cyanobacteria. Here we describe the taxonomy of one such example, the colonial species Gloeocapsopsis aurea . This cyanobacterium produces irregular, packet-like colonies that form black mats, films and crusts. Based on analysis of algal samples from Punta Cierva (Antarctic Peninsula) and King George Island (South Shetland Islands), this taxon is widely distributed in coastal, deglaciated areas of the maritime Antarctic. It is an important, often dominating, ecotype, mostly colonising irrigated rocks but also found in a variety of other aquatic and semi-aquatic habitats under a wide range of conductivities, pH and nutrient regimes.
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Acknowledgements
Part of this work has been carried out through a contract between the University of Buenos Aires and the Instituto Antártico Argentino. Funding was provided by the ANPCyT-Argentina (grant BID 802/OC-AR-PICT 04440). In the Czech Republic, the study was supported by the projects of the Grant Agency of the Czech Academy of Sciences, nos K6005114 and A6005002/00. We thank Paul Broady, Warwick Vincent and an anonymous referee for their valuable comments on the original manuscript.
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Mataloni, G., Komárek, J. Gloeocapsopsis aurea, a new subaerophytic cyanobacterium from maritime Antarctica. Polar Biol 27, 623–628 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-004-0620-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-004-0620-6