Freshwater Algae from Millport Reservoir

Collected during the MSc Biology of Water Resource Management's April 2002 field trip to the Marine Station

 

Millport Reservoir was the water supply (now disused) for the island of Cumbrae. I collected some algal samples there while helping with a field course at the island's Marine Biology station. The picture shows Millport's famous Crocodile Rock.

 

The class remit was to perform a microbiological examination of the tourist beaches, then come up with (theoretical) design recommendations for sewage treatment, and for drinking water purification based on an old reservoir. We sampled the algae as a guide to the quality of the fresh water supply.

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(most algae are illustrated elsewhere in the pages: see INDEX, and are not reproduced on this page: see some other years, however.)

Millport Reservoir Plankton

Chrysophyta
 
Dinobryon
dominant
 
 
Diatoms:
 
Asterionella
 
Melosira (Aulacoseira)
 
Gyrosigma
 
 
Chlorophyta
 
Botryococcus
 
Chlorococcum (?)
 
Closterium sp.
 
Closteriopsis
 
Mougeotia
 
Pediastrum boryanum
 
Scenedesmus quadricaudum
 
Sphaerocystis
 
 
Dinoflagellates:
 
Ceratium
 
 
Blue-greens:
 
Anabaena
 
Microcystis
 
Oscillatoria
 

Millport Reservoir Periphyton

1:growing on dam walls:
Chlorophyta:
Cladophora
dominant
Mougeotia
Oedogonium
Pediastrum boryanum
Spirogyra
?Tetraspora
Diatoms:
Cymbella
Synedra ?acus
Blue-greens:
Chamaesiphon
Oscillatoria
2: growing on spillway:
Rhodophyta:
Asterocystis
dominant        
   
Asterocystis has globular or oval cells arranged in a linear series within a gelatinous sheath, forming a false filament. The sheath may be branched. The bluish colour might lead one to suspect a cyanobacterium ("blue-green alga"), but the cells clearly have chloroplasts, more easily seen in some of the cells from the distal portion of the filament. The chloroplasts are stellate, but this is not very clear: look at the large cell in the fourth image.
Chlorophyta:
Chaetophora
Cladophora
Geminella
Mougeotia 20µm
Oedogonium 20µm
Pediastrum

 

 

Stigeoclonium
 
Ulothrix
 
 
Diatoms:
Asterionella
Cymbella
Gomphonema truncatum
Blue-greens:
Oscillatoria 3µm


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[snaps]


John Kinross