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129430

Taxonomic and Ecological Observations on Some Algal and Cyanobacterial Morphospecies New for or Rarely Recorded in Either Egypt or Africa

Article

Last updated: 01 Jan 2025

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Abstract

THE UNDERSTANDING of the diversity and spatial distribution of cyanoprokaryotes and algae in Egypt is challenging because this is still an understudied topic. To address this knowledge gap, we discuss morphotaxonomic features and ecological preferences for ten cyanobacterial and algal morphospecies from diverse Egyptian biotopes. Morphospecies were studied and identified using state-of-the-art and fine-grained taxonomy based on light and scanning electron microscope observations. Of these taxa, the cyanoprokaryotes Lemmermanniella uliginosa and Scytonema myochrous, the freshwater diatoms Cyclotella meduanae, Cavinula lapidosa, and Craticula subminuscula, the unicellular chrysophyte Mallomonas crassisquama, and the worldwide rarely-recorded zygnematalean streptophyte Hallasia cf. reticulata are designated as new records for Egypt. Moreover, the latter and L. uliginosa are as well first records for the whole African continent. Worthy of note, the freshwater diatoms Cyclostephanos invisitatus, Encyonema neomesianum, and Gomphonema laticollum have been rarely observed in previous Egyptian studies. Overall, most taxa identified tolerate increased nutrient concentrations (meso-eutraphentic and eutraphentic species), reflecting different human impacts on the biotopes they colonize. These newly recorded taxa are supposed to have been mostly overlooked in the previous Egyptian studies due to their relatively isolated habitats, small size, or complex taxonomic and nomenclatural history. More interesting algal and cyanobacterial taxa are still hidden and not yet discovered in Egypt, particularly in the little-explored and isolated desert habitats, and further research, using integrated polyphasic approaches, is therefore indispensable to achieve a better estimate of the Egyptian cyanobacterial and algal diversity, and to set up efficient algae-based assessment systems tailored for the Egyptian habitats.

DOI

10.21608/ejbo.2020.50683.1587

Keywords

Africa, algae, Cyanoprokaryotes, Egypt, diatoms, Modern morphotaxonomy, New records

Authors

First Name

Abdullah A.

Last Name

Saber

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Botany Department, Faculty of Science, Ain Shams University, Abbassia Square, Cairo 11566, Egypt

Email

abdullah_elattar@sci.asu.edu.eg

City

-

Orcid

0000-0002-4676-6998

First Name

Mostafa

Last Name

El-Sheekh

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Botany Department, Faculty of Science, Tanta University, Tanta 31527, Egypt

Email

mostafaelsheekh@yahoo.com

City

Tanta

Orcid

null

First Name

Arthur Yu.

Last Name

Nikulin

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Federal Scientific Center of the East Asia Terrestrial Biodiversity of the Far Eastern Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, 159, 100-Letia Vladivostoka Prospect, Vladivostok, 690022, Russia

Email

artyrozz@mail.ru

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Marco

Last Name

Cantonati

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

MUSE – Museo delle Scienze, Limnology and Phycology Section, Corso del Lavoro e della Scienza 3, I-38123 Trento, Italy

Email

marco.cantonati@muse.it

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Hani

Last Name

Saber

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Department of Botany and Microbiology, Faculty of Science, South Valley University, Qena 83523, Egypt

Email

hani.saber@sci.svu.edu.eg

City

-

Orcid

-

Volume

61

Article Issue

1

Related Issue

23962

Issue Date

2021-04-01

Receive Date

2020-11-22

Publish Date

2021-04-01

Page Start

283

Page End

301

Print ISSN

0375-9237

Online ISSN

2357-0350

Link

https://ejbo.journals.ekb.eg/article_129430.html

Detail API

https://ejbo.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=129430

Order

21

Type

Original Article

Type Code

111

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Egyptian Journal of Botany

Publication Link

https://ejbo.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Taxonomic and Ecological Observations on Some Algal and Cyanobacterial Morphospecies New for or Rarely Recorded in Either Egypt or Africa

Details

Type

Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023