Epiphytic diatoms (Diatomeae) from Piraquara II urban reservoir, Paraná state

Abstract

Abstract We conducted a taxonomical study of epiphytic diatoms on the macrophytes Polygonum hydropiperoides, Ludwigia peruviana and Alternanthera philoxeroides collected in the mesotrophic reservoir Piraquara II flooded in 2009, located in the state of Paraná. A total of 135 infrageneric taxa were identified, among them five at generic level and other five are first records to the state. We provided illustration, valve metrics, meristics limits and taxonomic reference for each taxon. Also, life forms and species frequency are given. The most frequent diatoms totalized 15.3% of total identified taxa and sporadic species represented 54.7%. Achnanthidium minutissimum (Kützing) Czarnecki and Brachysira neoexilis Lange-Bertalot occurred in more than 90% of analyzed samples. Among the very frequent diatoms we found other species included in Achnantidium, Fragilaria and Eunotia. The solitary Discotella stelligera (Cleve & Grunow) Houk & Klee and the short chain Aulacoseira tenella (Nygaard) Simonsen are free living species that entangle among diatoms from the biofilm.