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Patterns of Diatom Distribution in Relation to Salinity

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The Diatom World

Part of the book series: Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology ((COLE,volume 19))

Abstract

The total concentration of dissolved salts and the ionic composition of water are known to be important ecological factors influencing diatom distribution. The difference in salt content between marine and inland waters has been regarded as a major boundary that only a few diatom lineages managed to cross and in only one direction, from marine to freshwater habitat. Certain concentrations of salts far below typical marine salinity (0.2–0.5 g/l) were also thought to represent important ecophysiological thresholds. Quantitative analyses of large diatom datasets collected from estuaries, coastal areas, lakes, and rivers reveal, however, a continuous turnover of diatom species and genera along salinity gradients. No portion of the salinity spectrum, except for the extremes, is characterized by a depauperate diatom flora. Recent advances in reconstructing the evolutionary history of diatoms indicate that salinity affinities shifted in many diatom lineages and more often than was thought previously. The relatively high number of diatom species and genera confined to the marine environment can be explained not by the existence of physiological salinity thresholds common to all diatoms, but by the spatial dominance and greater temporal stability of marine habitats in comparison to relatively ephemeral fresh and brackish water bodies. At present, there is no compelling evidence of any salinity thresholds acting as insurmountable obstacles in diatom evolution.

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  1. The Academy of Natural Sciences, 1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA, 19103, USA

    Marina Potapova

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  1. Jerusalem, The Hebrew University Of, P.O.Box 1132, Efrat, 90435, Israel

    Joseph Seckbach

  2. , Dept. Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado Museum of Natural, Henderson Bldg., 15th & Broadway, Boulder, 80309, Colorado, USA

    Patrick Kociolek

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Potapova, M. (2011). Patterns of Diatom Distribution in Relation to Salinity. In: Seckbach, J., Kociolek, P. (eds) The Diatom World. Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology, vol 19. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1327-7_14

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