Markéta Letáková

Palacký University Olomouc · Department of Botany

The Low Temperature Method (LTM) for sample stabilization in environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) is a promising tool for observing diatom assemblages in vivo. Use of ESEM, in comparison to conventional scanning electron microscopy, enables fresh material to be studied without any chemical pretreatment or conductive coating. The newly...

Epiphytic diatoms perform a variety of ecological functions. Diatoms are important primary producers and sources of oxygen which can modify the chemistry of the surrounding aquatic environment. They may live attached to plant surfaces with the help of extracellular polymeric substances and compete with plants for resources (e.g., light, nutrients)....

The popularity of aquatic bioassessments has increased in Europe and worldwide, with a considerable number of methods being based on benthic diatoms. Recent evidence from molecular data and mating experiments has shown that some traditional diatom morphospecies represent species complexes, containing several to many cryptic species. This case study...

Background and aims – The host-specificity of epiphytic diatom species has long been debated. Scuba divers sampled epiphytic diatoms in the shallow Alpine Lake Valagola (average depth c. 2 m) along seven transects (length: 30–144 m) in West-East direction. The bottom of the tarn was covered by macrophytes dominated by Chara aspera and Potamogeton g...

Small streams and shallow ponds represent sensitive ecosystems and attached diatoms can serve as integrative indicator with fast response to environmental changes. Development of methods for ecological monitoring throughout Europe and their calibration for particular ecoregions are not finished yet and databases need to be filled by data from under...

Benthic algae in small, shallow lakes often represent an important proportion of primary producers, and their competition for nutrients with phytoplankton can allow to maintain clear-water stages, even in the presence of moderate nutrient enrichment. Even in these small and apparently relatively-homogeneous environments, microalgal distribution is...

Spring habitats host highly-interesting diatom assemblages for different reasons: they are multiple ecotones (groundwater/surface water, aquatic/terrestrial, springhead/springstream system linkages); they occur in a large variety of types and combination of environmental variables (from shaded to exposed, from low-conductivity to saline, from prist...