algae of romania

809 Pages·2012·4.12 MB·English

ALGAE OF ROMANIA

A distributional checklist of actual algae

Ioan Cărăuş, Ph.D.

[Version 2.3]

2012

1
Acknowledgements

This study was started about 20 years ago. Its accomplishment would be probably much
more difficult, even significantly delayed, without some major help received from several
scientists, who offered me algological literature published by them; I have to mention in the first
place, Professor Dr. Leontin Ştefan Péterfi (“Babeş-Bolyai” University in Cluj-Napoca);
Professor Dr. Laura Momeu (the same University); Dr. Nicolae Bodeanu and Dr. Pia Elena
Mihnea (Romanian Institute of Marine Research, Constanta) and last, but not least, the former
Dr. Lucian Gruia (who worked in the Institute of Biological Research, Bucharest).

I have to gratefully mention the encouraging and important support from two algologists –
Dr. Francisc Nagy-Tóth and Dr. Laura Momeu from Cluj-Napoca, which, at the beginning of the
work, contributed to determine me to continue to go ahead on a difficult and apparently endless
way. They offered me opportunities to access several basic bibliographical sources; Dr. Laura
Momeu also helped me in clarifying the present taxonomic status of some diatom species.
Much information referring to marine algae were available due to the help of Dr.
Alexandru Bologa, the Scientific Director of the Romanian Institute for Marine Research
(ConstanŃa).

An important specific technical support was offered by a lot of academic, university and
research libraries/librarians from Bucharest, Iaşi, Piatra Neamt, ConstanŃa, GalaŃi, Cluj-Napoca,
Sibiu, Nucet/DâmboviŃa who facilitated me the access to some old and rare publications. Some
rare publications were available from the personal scientific library of Prof. Dr. Stoica Godeanu
(Bucharest). All these privileges are acknowledged.

A special help was kindly offered by two colleagues – Dr. Ecaterina Tünde Tóth (Piatra
NeamŃ) and Professor Dr. Klaus Battes (Bacău University) – who provided information useful to
identify the actual name of several locations mentioned by some authors by Hungarian and/or
German geographic denominations.

Special thanks are addressed to the University of Bacău (Romania), which accepted to
publish this large sized compilation in a full issue of its scientific publication – Studii şi
Cercetări - Biologie – and supported all the inherent costs.

Finally, I must respectfully and gratefully mention the work of all the scientists who, along
more one hundred years, contributed to the development of Algology in Romania, to the
continuously growing of knowledge on algae flora; without their work, this synthesis would not be
realized.
A very important help was represented by the Algaebase.org, created at the National
University of Ireland; the information available on this site allowed me to access many updated
scientific names.

Last, but not least, I have to express all my deep gratitude to my wife Mariana, who, along
a period that exceeded 35 years, was my first aid in research activity (both in the field, in
laboratory or in the library); she, also, with patience and understanding, supported through the
years a husband who often seemed to be (and, really, he was) much too preoccupied by so much
time-consuming research activities.
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Studii şi Cercetări Biologie 7 1-809 Universitatea Bacău, 2002
Third revision - 2012

ALGAE OF ROMANIA
A distributional checklist of actual algae

© Ioan Cărăuş

Content

Acknowledgements 2

Content 3

1.Introduction 4

Notice from the Author 7

2. A distributional checklist of living algae in Romania 8

Cyanophyta – Cyanobacteria 9
Rhodophyta 68
Chrysophyta 77
Prymnesiophyta 95
Xanthophyta 95
Bacillariophyta 110
Dinophyta 342
Phaeophyta 356
Rhaphydophyceae (Chloromonadophyta) 359
Cryptophyta 359
Euglenophyta 362
Chlorophyta 396
Charophyta 572
Glaucophyta 579
Entities whose taxonomic situation is unclear 579

3. Synonyms 581
4. Location of sampling stations for algae collection 655
5. Occurrence site classification according to habitat characteristics 716
6. Index of genera 720
7. Basic taxonomic literature 726
8. References 732
About the author; Author’s @ddress 809

3
1. Introduction

In Romania, the study of the algae has a relative long history. The first records of algal
species in freshwater habitats from Transylvania, the central part of actual territory of Romania,
were reported at the middle of XIXth century by F.Schur. Later, the investigations on Romanian
algal flora developed that resulting in a gradual and significant increase of the algofloristic
knowledge.
Among the first larger papers concerning the algal flora of Romania there are the diatomological
studies of O.Tömösvary who published in Cluj-Napoca “Bacillariophyceae in Dacia observatas”
(1879-1880), presenting the species identified in a lot of sampling stations in Transylvania. In the
same period, Julius Schaarschmidt realized the chapter referring to the Algae, within the synthesis
concerning the Flora of Romania, edited by A.Kanitz (1879-1881); he listed 270 taxonomic
units (species, varieties and forms), identified in locations from Muntenia, Oltenia and Dobrogea,
Danube River and the Black Sea. The same author published three major contributions under the
title “Additamenta ad Algologiam Dacicam” (1880-1882), presenting the species of algae found
by him in Transylvania.

A first comprehensive work on the algal flora of Romania was published in 1907/1908 by
Emanoil C. Teodorescu : “Materiaux pour la flore algologique de la Roumanie”. The author
reported 430 species of algae (except the Diatoms), most of them identified by himself from 54
sampling stations, from various habitats (freshwaters, inland salt waters, marine littoral areas, soils
etc.). For the following 50 years, this was the main reference work on the Romanian algae.
In 1956 – 1958, I. Tarnavschi and M. Oltean published a new synthesis on Romanian algal
flora : “Materiale pentru un conspect al algelor din România” (I-II). The authors , based on up-
to-date Romanian algological literature (159 sources), listed 1502 species of algae, both freshwater
and marine. This work represented for some decades an unique and valuable bibliographical
reference, very useful for the developing further algological investigations.

During the last decades of XXth century, the investigations on algal flora of Romania
developed significantly. A lot of research projects were carried on by the scientists from Cluj
Napoca, dealing especially with algae from mountain areas, peat bogs, and other wet habitats,
mainly from Transylvania. In Bucharest, a special attention was paid by researchers to the algae
flora from Danube, Danube floodplain, Danube Delta, other water bodies, soils and rice fields.
Marine algae – both microphytic and large ones – were studied by investigators from research
units from Agigea, Mamaia and ConstanŃa. Last, but not least, it is to be mentioned the
investigations on algal flora carried out at “Stejarul” (PângăraŃi) Research Station, concerning
mainly the man-made lakes.

Further on, the accumulation of more and more scientific information, and the diversity of
professional journals including algological contributions generated certain difficulties in
establishing which of the identified species of algae represent new additions for the algal flora of
Romania. There were some cases when different authors reported, separately and not
simultaneously, the same species as a new floristic record. The huge amount of published
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information on algal records in Romania during the last four decades of the XXth century made
possibly – and necessary – a new listing of the species of algae found on the territory of Romania.
In the present time, a special attention is paid, worldwide, to the investigation of the
biodiversity both in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, as a important characteristic of the natural
capital, a major indication of the trend of its evolution.
In this sense, the study of different taxonomic categories of organisms, their geographic
distribution, may be of a very special interest. The study of the algae could also be of some
interest in relation to biotechnological developments – especially for algal culture, for integrated
aquaculture etc.

Present study aims to the summarize – as far as possible – the published information about
the presence and distribution of living algae on the territory of Romania.

There was taken into consideration the scientific bibliography referring to the algofloristic
investigations carried out along a period of about 150 years; these studies were conducted on
different types of natural algal communities, living in lakes, ponds, pools, rivers, reservoirs, in salt
or brackish inland water bodies, in polluted or clean waters, in peat bogs, on soils, on snow, on
stone walls, in cave ecosystems, in Romanian littoral waters of the Black Sea etc.
There were considered many literature sources, not only that with floristic character,
published by notorious algologists, but also the papers of specialists in other branches of
hydrobiology, in algal physiology, botanists, who mentioned even one algal species in their work.
In my opinion, the redundancy of information concerning the presence of one or other algae is
favorable for a better knowledge of algal presence and distribution in the territory.

An attempt to compiling the available information on the fossil algae was also made,
taking into consideration the geological/palaeontological literature published in Romania.
Because of the complexity and the relatively systematic unclear situation of part of the
fossil algae, I preferred to separate the listing of living algae from the fossil one; the last will be – I
still hope (!) - the subject of an intended second volume of ALGAE OF ROMANIA.

I have to mention that besides the literature published by Romanian biologists, there were
considered also the publications of the specialists in neighboring countries, who studied the
boundary waters; we took the assumption that an algal population recorded in one sampling station
on a river (or reservoir) – even in littoral site - may be, very probably, a certain presence in the
whole aquatic ecosystem.

Concerning the systematics (taxonomic situation) of the algae listed in Chapter 2 of the
present study, there are to be emphasized some points, as follows.
First of all, it may be said that this is not a taxonomic work; it is only a synthesis, a
species inventory summarizing the information published by many authors in a lot of scientific
journals, some of them being rare; these authors worked along a period of 150 years, in which time
the taxonomic algology itself developed significantly. By using different basic algological
literature, the algal names published by different investigators varied to a certain extent.
Secondly, I think it is to be mentioned the fact that algal taxonomy itself is in present a
dynamic, non-homogenous and not generally accepted topic. Even now there are some very
different opinions concerning the phylogeny and nomenclature of the Algae, the classification of
this diverse group of organisms, from the top to the lowest systematic levels (species, varieties).

In various recent published articles, or in major algological syntheses/databases found on
Internet sites, there may be observed major differences in considering and denomination of one
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and the same algal entity; I refer for instance to algal entities belonging to the former/actual
freshwater algae in genera as Synedra/Fragilaria/Fragilariopsis/Ctenophora//Ulnaria, or
Melosira/Aulacoseira/Ellerbeckia etc etc. A more exciting example refers to the old genus
Navicula which was ¨sprayed¨ in a lot of new genera : Adlafia, Aneumastus, Biremis, Cavinula,
Craticula, Cymbopleura, Decussata, Diadesmis, Encyonopsis, Eolimna, Fallacia, Fistulifera,
Haslea, Hippodonta, Luticola, Lyrella, Mayamaea, Naviculadicta, Parlibellus, Petroneis,
Placoneis, Proshkinia, Sellaphora; of course, some of the species still remained in the original
genus. Several marine species of these genera were not taken (yet) into consideration by generic
change of nomenclature. Even in the last years there were published floristic reports using
“classic” generic names (as Synedra or Melosira) which meantime were replaced/modified in
European basic systematic literature. A number of infraspecific taxonomic entities belonging to the
former species need further clarification; meantime, they remained in a sort of “suspension”.

Unfortunately, within the floristic literature examined during the preparation of this work,
there were met some old scientific algal names which seem to have been lost on the way; I could
not find them in available basic modern literature neither as valid names, nor as synonyms or
rejected names (e.g Ulvina aceti Kützing, Hygrogrocys atramenti Agardh, Botrydina vulgaris
Brébisson etc). They were mentioned separately in the final part of the list of species, as
taxonomic units without a clear systematic situation/affiliation.

I think it could be more important to report the presence of one or another algal entity,
even under an old name, in order to know better and better the distribution area of that taxonomic
unit.

In this situation, I considered preferably to avoid the taxonomic or nomenclature
clarification/controversies and to focus the attention to the summarizing – as far as possible - an
actual list of living algae recorded in Romania, and to mention, also, for each of them, the
locations in which it was sampled. In order to facilitate the identification of algal species, (no
matter the name under which there were published in time), a special section of the study presents
a general listing of synonyms attributed to various taxonomical algal entities.

In memory of A.Pascher I should like to remember to the users of this distributional
checklist of living algae - own Pascher’s words *:

“Errors made by an author or by publisher cannot be avoided because it is
impossible to survey such an enormous field of research, but well founded encouragement
or correction will be gratefully accepted”.

Being sure that this work could and must be improved, I ask cordially all the specialists to
send me their observations, comments and suggestions, in order to consider their opinions when a
new edition will be prepared.
________________
* cited according to “Süsswasserflora Mitteleuropas”

☯ ☯
☯

6
Notice from the Author:

(cid:3) This is not a taxonomical work; it only summarizes the literature information concerning the presence
and distribution of species of algae in Romania; it may me considered as a help for interested specialists
in order to avoid time-consuming visits to many scientific libraries for searching different – sometimes
very old or rare - publications in the field. Here there may be found information referring to the
presence/absence of a species in Romania, the spatial distribution of algae, the algological investigations
dealing with a specific ecosystem, a river or river basin etc.

(cid:3) In the list presented below, there are included a lot of systematic entities which have a controversial
position; some of them are not even generally accepted as “algae” (as Beggiatoa etc); however, they
were listed because, at the moment of the original publication, they were considered algae and this may

be of any interest for following the historical evolution of systematic algology;

(cid:3) In the list of algae there are included some species names which are not generally accepted in
present; part of them were modified (even repeatedly) recently. In spite of this situation, old names are
yet currently used by a lot of investigators (i.e. Synedra ulna > Fragilaria ulna > Ulnaria ulna). There are
many such situations. It is possible that new changes will be made in future. In this work, some of the
relative old names were used and, in a number of cases the oldest names were listed in the section 3 –

Synonyms.

(cid:3) Among the cited authors are not only the widely recognized algologists, but also some limnologists,
botanists, plant physiologists, biologists, other specialists who mentioned in their papers even one
species of algae identified by them or by other persons; it was considered that the redundancy of
information could be of some use, in sense of a more complete knowledge, a confirmation of the

geographic distribution of algae;

(cid:3) The author of this compilation emphasizes his entire confidence in the reality of all species

identifications by the cited authors, starting, normally, from the idea of assumption their total correctness;

(cid:3) Any taxonomical/nomenclatural error as well as any mistake in the localization of a sampling station

belong to the author of the compilation. Observations in this sense will be gratefully appreciated.

(cid:3) If you want to cite this work, you may write :
Cărăuş I. – Algae of Romania. A distributional checklist of actual algae. Stud.Cerc.Biol., Univ.Bacău; 2002, 7 :

1-809; version 2.3 – third revision, 2012

(cid:3) Some technical tips & tricks (just in case !):
- In order to access the information concerning algae species, their occurrence locations, the authors/papers
dealing with a species or another, you can use the command FIND in EDIT;
- When a Romanian name of a location is searched (including Romanian specific letter characters) you may type
the correct name, using characters in Insert > Symbol, taste Copy and then Paste that Romanian name in the cell of
FIND, and click Find!; this procedure is applicable both to names of authors and names of locations;
- When a specific literature source is wanted, you may reach it writing in the cell of FIND window its identification
code, only between square blanckets (i.e. [S1200], then click FIND
- When this interest aims to know the algal flora of a specific location – i.e. a lake, or a fish pond, its name must
be tipped in the cell of FIND, then click FIND!, and note the species identified in that ecosystem; repeat the operation to
the end of list of species
- When a species is searched for, utilizing its old name but used for a long time (e.g.Synedra ulna), this name will
be tipped in the cell of FIND; the name will be found in Synonyms section, together with its accepted name; then look for
this accepted name and the species (i.e. Ulnaria ulna) will be found with its distribution in Romania. This section could be of
a real help considering the important changes of latin names during last decades
- If the interest aims to know the papers dealing with a specific ecosystem/location, the information will be found in
the corresponding cell from the last (fifth) column of the table “Occurence sites for algal species”

- In order to show the priority for identifying a species in Romania, that literature source (its code) was marked
with bold/italics.

7
2. A distributional checklist of living algae in Romania

The arrangement of species on major systematic groups were made according to the
classification presented by South and Whittick (1990); in several cases, some specifications were
made according to new classification approaches.
For every taxonomic entity there were mentioned the locations where they were identified
in and, for each location, the code of literature source (corresponding to the codes presented in
the last section of this work - “References”). Location codes are shown in Section 4; as a rule, the
sampling stations were grouped within respective hydrographic basins. Generally, the
arrangement of hydrographic basins, but of the water bodies also was made starting from
upstream to downstream. Codes containing TI indicative refers to occurences in Tisa River basin,
SO – in Someş River basin, MS – Mureş River basin, TM – Timiş River basin, BA – Bârzava
River Basin; CS – Caraş River basin, NE – Nera River basin, CE – Cerna River basin, JI – Jiu
River basin, OT – Olt River basin, AG – Argeş River basin, IA – IalomiŃa River basin, CA –
CalmăŃui River basin, SI – Siret River basin, PR – Prut River basin, DA – Danube River basin,
DB – Dobrogea hydrographic space, BS – Black Sea, UN – unidentified locations in Romania
(not specified by author/s).
In the list of literature sources referring to an algal species the paper which firstly
mentioned (for Romania) that species is written with bold italic characters.

In the case the author of a species or a subspecies entity was not found neither in the
referred paper nor in different taxonomic books/algae databases, that alga was marked by (*).
Other mark means:
(?) – Actual taxonomic situation is unclear and needs further investigation or

- the alga was not found in available recent taxonomic works

8
Cyanophyta - Cyanobacteria

1. Achroonema angustatum (Koppe) Skuja
427CE(S0190);1087DA(S0190)

2. Anabaena aequalis Borge
124SO(S0181);198CR(S1233);336MS(S1314);551OT(S1045;S1415);716AG(S0061);1108DA(S0190)
;1134DA(S0196);1135DA(S0196);1142DA(S0196);1200DA(S0058);1203DA(S0152;S0269);1207DA
(S0238;S0372;S1363);1207aDA(S1409);1213DA(S0062);1217DA(S1046);1225DA(S0296);1263DA
(S0041;S0049)

Anabaena aequalis Borge
f. anomala Kossinskaja
52SO(S0243;S0300)

3. Anabaena augstumnalis Schmidle
4TI(S1176);5TI(S0164;S0079;S0609);9TI(S0079);10TI(S0079);11TI(S0079;S0164);12TI(S0079);
24TI(S0164;S0079);40SO(S0030);52SO(S1176);56SO(S0077);60SO(S0244);61SO(S0509);74SO
(S1280);285MS(S0030);323MS(S0500);325MS(S0500);374MS(S0051);401BA(S1176);476OT
(S0308;S0336);592OT(S0508);650AG(S1311);875SI(S0610);912SI(S0136);1374UN(S0556)

Anabaena augstumnalis Schmidle
f. incrassata (Nygaard) Elenkin
650AG(S1311)

Anabaena augstumnalis Schmidle
var. longispora Tarnavschi et Mitroiu, 1956
874SI(S1176);875SI(S0498;S0719)

Anabaena augstumnalis Schmidle
f. marchica (Lemmermann) Elenkin
1005PR(S0513)

4. Anabaena azollae Strasburger
685AG(S1319);689AG(S0817;S0427);832SI(S0903);1207aDA(S1409);1300DB(S0142)

5. Anabaena baltica J.Schmidt
295MS(S0456)

Anabaena catenula (Kützing) Bornet et Flahault – see : Trichormus catenula (Kützing ex
Bornet et Flahault) Komárek et Anagnostidis

Anabaena catenula (Kützing) Bornet et Flahault
var. affinis (Lemmermann) Geitler
961SI(S1417);1207DA(S0238;S0372)

6. Anabaena circinalis Rabenhorst ex Bornet et Flahault
55SO(S1202);89aSO(S1374);142SO(S0906);492OT(1044);551OT(S1045;S1415);558OT(S1260);
721AG(S0080);811IA(S0601);1029PR(S0656);1043PR(S0654);1056PR(S0655);1074PR(S0794);
1076DA(S1361);1124DA(S0353);1169DA(S0192);1176DA(S1346;S1450);1200DA(S0058);1202DA
(S0269);1203DA(S0132;S0269);1207DA(S1363;S1403);1207aDA(S1409);1230DA(S0372);1231DA
(S0372);1232DA(S0464);1236DA(S1046;S0372;S0464);1237DA(S1046;S0372;S0464);1240DA
(S0464);1271DA(S0372);1272DA(S0464);1277DA(S0372;S0464;S1204);1281aDA(S1331);1282DA
9
(S1331);1300DB(S0142);1310DB(S0928);1324DB(S0400);1325DB(S0400);1337DB(S1346;S1450);
1338DB(S0648;S0372;S0839);1338aDB(S1346;S1347);1339aDB(S1346;S1424);1413UN(S0238);
1415UN(S0157)

7. Anabaena contorta Bachmann
8TI(S0079);457JI(S0055);630AG(S0778);631AG(S0778);632AG(S0778);633AG(S0778);634AG
(S0778);721AG(S0080;S0107);994SI(S0141);1076DA(S0521);1078DA(S0119);1164DA(S0170);
1177DA(S0207);1200DA(S0058;S0067;S0130;S0522;S0541);1201DA(S0792);1207DA(S0372;
S1363);1207aDA(S1409);1271DA(S0839);1277DA(S0839;S1204);1321DB(S0729);1370UN(S0409;
S0685)

8. Anabaena cylindrica Lemmermann
4TI(S1176);8TI(S0079;S0164);11TI(S0079;S0164);13TI(S0079;S0164);15TI(S0164);1374UN(S0556)

9. Anabaena cylindrospora Tschernov
1324DB(S0400)

10. Anabaena echinospora Skuja
774IA(S0516)

11. Anabaena ellipsoides Bolochonzew
525OT(S1044)

12. Anabaena felisii (Meneghini) Bornet et Flahault
1076DA(S0521);1200DA(S0058;S0541);1203DA(S0130)

Anabaena flos-aquae (Lyngbye) Brébisson – see : Dolichospermum flos-aquae
(Brébisson ex Bornet et Flahault) Wacklin, Hoffman et Komárek

Anabaena flos-aquae (Lyngbye) Brébisson
f. aptekariana Elenkin
151SO(S1371);1390UN(S0368)

Anabaena flos-aquae (Lyngbye) Brébisson
var. gracilis Klebahn
1169DA(S0192);1413UN(S0238)

Anabaena flos-aquae (Lyngbye) Brébisson
var. intermedia Woronichin
721AG(S0080);1169DA(S0192);1413UN(S0238)

Anabaena flos-aquae (Lyngbye) Brébisson
f. spiroides (Woronichin) Elenkin
1169DA(S0192)

13. Anabaena heterospora Nygaard
1163DA(S0170);1164DA(S0170)

14. Anabaena inaequalis (Kützing) Bornet et Flahault
1164DA(S0170)

15. Anabaena lapponica Borge
476OT(S0631);592OT(S0508);874SI(S1176);875SI(S0498);913SI(S0136);1374UN(S0556)

Anabaena lapponica Borge
var. insignis Kossinskaja
10