Science topic
Phytoplankton - Science topic
Free-floating minute organisms that are photosynthetic. The term is non-taxonomic and refers to a lifestyle (energy utilization and motility), rather than a particular type of organism. Most, but not all, are unicellular algae. Important groups include DIATOMS; DINOFLAGELLATES; CYANOBACTERIA; CHLOROPHYTA; HAPTOPHYTA; CRYPTOMONADS; and silicoflagellates.
Questions related to Phytoplankton
Hello. I am a post-graduate student and I am doing a research on the blooming of bioluminescent algae. I came across this organism in my sample and failed to identify it. If anyone of you know what is it, please let me know.



Hi.
i counted 100 phytoplankton cells in the 25 rectangles of the malassez cell. of course i filtered a volume of 50ml before and it is from this volume that i made my count. so i would like to know what is the formula to have the number of cells in the 50ml filtered please.
What is the best type of plankton net to deploy in wadeable rivers? Our lab is looking into phytoplankton assemblage in our river and we are debating a cod end with mesh to allow flow to go through and trap specimens against the mesh, or a cod end that is just a cup to try and minimize damage to specimes.
It would be helpful to know what type of plankton nets your lab is using and why you chose that net.
Thanks!
I found research that states that, "... dry weight and corresponding nitrogen content of phytoplankton calculated following standard method (Jorgensen et al. 2000)" However, I did not find an equation that can show how to calculate nitrogen content in phytoplankton. Can I get references regarding this?
Research seems to be still ambiguous about the comfort zone of phytoplanktons. Which pH Value and temperature can phytoplanktons not adapt to?
What is the comfort zone for for zoonotic plankton?
How likely is an adaption to new tipping point zones that may function for both planktons?
Hello, everyone.
I need some help.
Please, could you indicate books or articles about phytoplankton ecology?
I would like to understand cycles, biogeochemistry or any relevant information about them.
Thank you very much for your help:]
Hi all,
I'm looking for PFT time series (global scale preferred). I found OSS2015 PFT (PHYSAT) in hermes but I wonder is there any other open database of global PFT to compare with earth system model prediction?
Best,
Hyung-Gyu
The results of my study on the parasitic fauna of economically important crustaceans in the Liguasan marsh are not encouraging; it seems that phytoplankton predominates over parasite in most cases. This is significant since the content of my paper may change based on my findings. Can someone suggest relevant studies on this subject?
Dear diatomists,
Can someone could say to which Thalassiosira species this diatom belongs? Or it is not a Thalassiosira?
The scale bar is 10 mkm.

I found a published photo where author writes that this is diatom species Hyalosira delicatula. But I have some doubts about such conclusion.
Unfortunatedly I do not have any photographs and the description of Hyalosira delicaula. So, can anyone familiar with the genus Hyalosira confirm or refute this conclusion?

What plant techniques are used to reduce red tide
Aquatic plants
Phytoplankton
Toxic accumulating plants
Allelopathic plants

I'm doing stable isotope analysis to construct a reservoir food web. For that, I need to collect zooplankton and phytoplankton separately. The use of different mesh sizes solved the problem to some extent but can't obtain pure samples. Are there any methods other than that?
I have to sampling phytoplankton and zooplankton for stable isotope analysis to construct reservoir food web.
The pigment is extracted from phytoplankton by the Zapata method.
At some point, chlorophyll a was not found in the sample.
However, when chlorophyll a is measured with 10-au, chlorophyll a is detected.
The strange thing is that it is extracted with standard.
Have you ever had a similar experience?
I would like to see algal class abundance from my pigment (data one year). I need a great help from experts regarding how to start the CHEMTAX program since I have lack of knowledge in statistics.
Thanks
Hi all,
I want to test whether the primary production by phytoplankton from a whole year (so every day a measurement) predicted by model calculations differs from the field measurements of the primary production. Therefore, it wouldn't make sense to take the mean of the two years, but I want to test if the primary production on day 28 in the model differs from the measurement on that day and than I want to test that for al the days and in this way thest whether the model significantly differs from the measurements. What test should I use for this? or do I have to take multiple staps?
There is some information found related to this.
" the net productivity and growth rate of the phytoplankton are usually underestimated when bottled methods measuring dissolved oxygen are used in estimating phytoplankton respiration Steelmann-Nielsen (1975)".
So I need to know what is the solution to avoid this underestimation and what are other methods available instead of bottle methods?
Please share your valuable comments.
Thanks in advance.
Hi Friend and colleague,
Anybody is working in field of algae can respond to me. I had query about Pamer index. 1969 and Shannon index .
Which index is better for studying water pollution in relation to algae
Because some of research article showed use of
Staub et. al. (1970) : shannon diversity is based on diversity index D
3.0 - 4.5 : Slight pollution
2.0 - 3.0 : Light pollution
1.0 - 2.0 : Moderate pollution
0.0 - 1.0 : Heavy pollution
Wilhm and Dorris (1968) proposed the following relationship between diversity index (D) and pollution status. D Condition
> 3 Clean water
1 - 3 Moderately polluted
< 1 Heavily polluted
Trivedi (1980 and 1981) on correlation of diversity index (D) and the degree of pollution as follows : Condition
> 4.0 : Clean water
3.0 - 4.0 : Very light pollution
2.0 - 3.0 : Moderate pollution
< 2.0 : Heavy pollution
I have separate algal and zooplankton samples that I want to have stable isotope analysis of C and N performed on.
The samples were filtered onto 0.4 µm glass fibre filters (GF/F) that were then freeze-dried and stored at - 80 degrees. In error, the glass fibre filters were not pre-combusted or pre-weighed prior to having the zooplankton and algal samples filtered onto them.
Is there a way to still use these samples for stable isotope analysis of C and N? I have read that you can scape the material of the filter paper and then place in a tin foil boat for analysis but don't feel confident in the reliability of this approach.
Hello, everybody. My PhD research is about eutrophication
processes in a hypersaline lagoon which has registered episodes
of fish mortality. My study includes a phytoplankton species
inventory. I would like a guide of toxic and/or potential harmful
phytoplankton. Thanks to all.
What is the best way to separate phytoplankton and zooplankton?
Sorting of freshwater plankton.
Thank you for your suggestions!
it is related to identification of phytoplankton

Can I include the Generalized Linear Model in Phytoplankton Community Structure studies? Please share some related reference papers if someone found the same. Thank you in Advance. Stay Safe and Stay Happy dear Researchers.
Kind Regards
Anila P Ajayan
I'm looking to describe an algal community, so I need a method that can work to preserve both diatoms and other algae. I've been looking at glutaraldehyde, but I'm not sure if that is the best option. Any help is appreciated!
I was wondering if ecosystem metabolism (GPP-ER=NEP) could be measured using BOD bottles that are not completely filled with water (dark-light bottle method). In such a case, which problems could come from this approach?
Do you have a reference that could be useful to discern which method to use?
Thank you!
hello all scholars I need to know please the interpretation of CANOCO V 4.5 to analysis phytoplankton relation with environment, zooplankton and macrophyte coverage. please could you help me?
The levels of trace metals Co, Cu, Ni and Zn in both
dissolved and particulate phases of water from six branches
of Shatt Al-Arab River have been investigated during two
seasons, spring and summer 2006 by means of Atomic
Absorption Spectrophotometry. Levels recorded in μg/ml
were: Co (0.019-0.078), Cu(0.163 - 0.240), Ni(0.035 – 0.094)
and Zn (0.130–0.215) in dissolved phase during both seasons
compared to particulate phase in which levels recorded in
μg/g were Co (11.10 – 26.468), Cu(76.340- 376.543), Ni
(7.778 – 150.676) and Zn (222.546 – 654.128). These levels
were higher than most previous studies at the same sites. It is
appeared that all studied branches are highly polluted and
water appears highly turbid, viscose and greenish in color
due to the expected abundance of phytoplanktons.
I am working on the dynamics in the phytoplankton assemblage of Lake Victoria. I need some guidance on the best approach to model the chlorophyll-a, and or phytoplankton diversity in the lake,
Are there any experts in the field (phytoplankton or modelling) to guide me during my research activities?
Guys, I took this picture and found this "circle" interesting, I need someone who can form me whatever it may be? If you have any questions, download a zoom image to check, as there is only this record. Do you think this circle could be of the genus Chlorella?
Best regards,
Ranielton de Moraes

We plan to sample a lot of lakes one by one during several days, so we need something quick and reliable to characterize phytoplankton community.
The specimen originates from lake water in Sweden.

I have been exploring data in the Agean sea from MODIS product normalized fluorescence line-height (nFLH).
In many control areas, I have noticed a strange pattern on the fluorescence line-height values. Does anyone know if this is due to a problem in the sensor?


Hiya - As a zooplankton person this is quite simple using length to weight relationships. But I'm trying to figure out the approximate carbon weight of a phytoplankton that is for example 20 um. Are there length-weight relationships for phyotplankton too? Is it possible in the absence of chlorophyll-a and species data?
Why Amphora genus of phytoplankton become dominant in slightely saline lake ?
I have flow cytometric data from a series of phytoplankton samples. I organized all the FCS files into flowSets using the flowCore package. My next step would be to determine compositional differences between the samples. The flowCore package offers some options for basic operations on the data, such as gating, subsetting, etc, but now I wonder if there are any more sophicticated packages for a more in-depth analysis. Any suggestions or experience shared would be highly appreciated!
Please, I need the identification key of the marine phytoplankton?
We are interested to calculate biomass from cyanobacteria biovolume: has anyone applicable suggestions and formulas for that? I will appreciate any info, paper, formulas etc.!
Thank you!
Iasmina
CTAB or Phenol chloroform, which is better? Please guide me in detail
At what point (concentration) is sulphate lethal to phytoplankton?
Any relationship between sulphate concentration and algal growth and development?
How can one contruct an experiment to determine the effect of sulphate concentration on phytoplankton?
Hi guys, I need your help identifying this phytoplankton?
I took this sample in fresh water on the São Francisco River
the family i believe is merismopediaceae
within the genre I believe it's Coelosphaerium
follow the link of a similar image, but the mucilage is different from the sample I have
Sincerely
Ranielton Moraes

Using a Horiba FluoroMax - just getting going on this procedure for the first time and can't find any explicitly clear literature online.
Fatty acids composition of microalgae differed from species to species.
Hi,
I need to convert phytoplankton (cells/ml) to phytoplankton biomass (µg C/L) to compute in water quality modelling. In literature, I found biomass transformation for microrganicsm and conversion factor of phytoplankton (as C:Chla ratio). I am not sure that i can use this equation for phytoplankton biomass.
Note: I have phytoplankton as green (Class Chlorophteae) and diatom (Class Chrysonphyceae).
Literature: C. Ferrier-Page`s, J.-P. Gattuso (1998) Biomass, Production and Grazing Rates of Pico- and Nanoplankton in Coral Reef Water (Miyako Island, Japan). Micro Ecol, 35: 46-57. DOI: 10.1007/s002489900059
Please give me some advise
Thank you
Hi researchers, plz answer the above questions
Hello everyone,
I write to ask if this image is fitoplancton? if so which phylum and genre? This sample was taken from fresh water from the São Francisco River, Brazil. not measurements, because I don't think so.
Sincerely,
Ranielton de Moraes

Hello guys, I write because I need to identify this genre of phytoplankton
follows and image on and the measurements
colony length is 18.15µm, width18.975µm, radius is 10.755µm
I believe the genre could be Aphanacopsa

For calculating Q-index for phytoplankton functional group can we consider only the water depth or should we also consider the area of the aquatic body?
Hi all!
I have the output of amplicon sequencing data (18S) for algae species from two sites. I am looking for a method that is not TOO complex where I can analyse which species are correlated with the presence of my target species.
Thanks in advance.
We usually use Formaldehyde to fix phyto and protozooplankton samples to be analyzed through FlowCam. However, this time we will conduct a plastivory experiment in Antarctica, and the samples to be analyzed in FlowCam will contain phytoplankton and also microplastics. Microplastics will be later aswell observed by Raman microscopy, and one requeriment to observations through Raman is not to use formaldehyde. I think that may be ethanol can shrink phytoplankton cells? the objetive is to count the cells.
I found a bloom of cyanobacteria with filaments that look like Sphaerospermopsis aphanizomenoides if you see the dispositions Heterocyte_AKinete_Heterocyte and others features but i found some filaments with an elongated apical cell (fusiform) (i have tried to find Heteocytes or AKinetes but i didn't find).
Some suggestions?? Perhaps Aphanizomenon favaloroi?
Phytoplankton from a Reservoir fixed with lugol
Thanks in advance





+3
I have been using different kits and heat lysis methods but the DNA yields are normally low , even when I run the PCR on those samples, there us normally a smear of RNA with no bands at all or sometimes when I get bands the spectrophotometer readings are not quite consistent
I'm currently conducting a research on the phytoplankton composition of a series of ponds and water streams in moutain areas of my state (Bahia, Brazil). These organisms in the pictures are very frequent in my samples, but I can find no information on them. Any specialist would help me out with this? In the pictures they sometimes appear in a tridimensional manner, some other times, less frequently, as bidimensional.




identification name of diatom (phytoplankton).


I was wondering about the role of free fatty acids in dinoflagellates, more specifically the symbiodiniaceae? What are the metabolic pathways and where are the different types of lipids usually manufactured?
For my project looking at the biodiversity of phytoplankton in the Arctic, I have calculated Hill numbers and Average Taxonomic Distinctness on my samples, and they both tell very different stories so I would like to include them both. I am just stuck as to how I can justify using both, and if I can't, how do I choose which one to include? Has anyone else ever had a similar decision to make?
Since I clicked phytoplankton images which are in 2D format I am facing difficulty in measuring the 3rd dimension mostly related to apical section girdle view
I'm currently conducting a research on the phytoplankton composition of a series of ponds and water streams in moutain areas of my state (Bahia, Brazil). These organisms in the pictures are very frequent in my samples, but I can find no information on them. Any specialist would help me out with this?




The zooplankton density estimated in this study ranged from 354-771 cells per ml. That means it is 354000-771000 cells per liter. If you see the available literature from Indian coasts as well as from the same Kalpakkam coast, zooplankton density generally will be in the range of 200000-600000 cells per 10000 liters of seawater. Even many authors have reported similar densities for 100000 liters of seawater. So its unimaginable how such huge numbers were arrived.
Generally, a phytoplankton bloom with 700000 cells per liter density can be seen in naked eye as a distinct layer of green, brown or red colour on sea surface. So, with this high density of zooplankton reported in this paper, the sea will be full of zooplankton. With this density, if you take one liter of seawater, 20-30 % of the volume will be occupied by zooplankton considering the presence of gelatinous species encountered by the authors in this study. Practically, it is just impossible.
Size-fractioned absorption coefficients of phytoplankton(aph) has been estimated by several algorithms in the works of Devred et al.(2006), Brewin et al.(2011), and Varunan et al.(2015). However, we can not find the information about how to meansure in situ values of size-fractioned aph. In addition, can we empoly size fractioned filtration as same as PSC measurement (Pass the sea water through the 20μm and 2μm filter, and retaied on the 0.2μm filter)? Or, there are problems in this method?
In order to estimate the sources of particulate organic matter in a large freshwater lake. I measure the C/N ratio and C13 and also the n-alkanes as the biomarker to eluciate the potential sources of POM.
However, the results is very confusing. Because most of the POM have appraent peaks at c27 or c29 of alkanes profile (terrestrial signal), which have low C/N ratio as 3 to 5 (phytoplankton signal). I can understand that sometimes the clay particles from terrestial soil will have lower C/N, which are already reported by many references.
But these particles are also have low POC/chla ratio (<100), and a very good linear relationship of POC and chla was observed(R2>0.8).
Can anyone give some clue or suggestion? Thanks a lot.
what is the appropriate sampling design for the caracterisation and the study of the spatial and temporal variability of coastal phytoplankton in a bay in response to hydroclimatic conditions? knowing that this is going to be the first study of this kind in this region
In the absence of preliminary studies on the study area, I decided to opt for a systematic plan. what would you say?
is it possible to work with a purposive sampling method, knowing that the bay has an estuary and is subject to an ocean current?
Best wishes
Does anyone know how I can prevent a lake to be green?
I think this is because of phytoplankton growing in water.
This lake has some birds which drink from it and the answer must do not damage the birds.
thanks
To calculate the surface to volume ratio is relatively easy for unicellular species, coenobiums, and filaments, but, how do you calculate this relation in the case of phytoplankton colonies (e.g. Microcystis sp)? I was thinking that if one calculates the volume and surface of the whole colony the ratio could be sub rated. I would really appreciate some help.
This organism belongs to a sample of freshwater phytoplankton collected in the end of 2018. Does it depict asexual reproduction in Staurastrum or it's just an image imperfection?

i need control organically
Hello,
I performed some HPLC analysis in order to find pigments in my green algae (Scenedesmus). I recognised the peaks using retention times and size of area peaks, using as reference the Mantoura and Wright (1997) book. I would like to transform my area in mg/L but I don't have standards for the pigments, only for Chl a. Is there a way to do it anyway without standard?
Thank you in advance