Download MICROPHYTOBENTHOS DIVERSITY FROM MUDFLATS ALONG

MICROPHYTOBENTHOS DIVERSITY FROM MUDFLATS ALONG THE
SAVANNAH RIVER ESTUARY
Jelena Andrejic1,2, Ellen France1, and Kalina M. Manoylov1
1
Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Georgia College and State
University, Milledgeville, Georgia 31061 USA
2
Nuclear Sciences "Vinca", Laboratory for Material Sciences, 11000 Belgrade, SERBIA
Estuaries are known to have a diverse combination of freshwater, marine, and brackish
organisms. The microphytobenthos is composed of photosynthetic eukaryotes and
cyanobacteria with largely unknown life history and composition. Samples from the
Savannah River mudflats were collected at low and high tide, 23 kilometers from the
Savannah port at a USGS monitoring site. An attempt to culture taxa from the community
was performed for all algae, with the goal of developing a molecular and morphologic
catalogue for each taxon. In addition, cleaned diatoms were analyzed following standard
methods. Scanning and light microscope data were analyzed, and morphometric
measurements for each taxon were collected. 320 algal species were documented and are
currently in different stages of description, culture development or sequencing. The algal
community is dominated by planktonic marine diatoms like Cymatoseira belgica and
freshwater riverine diatoms from the genera Navicula, Luticola, and Cyclotella. Many
new taxa described were marine or brackish. The results from this research will serve as a
baseline for changes in the community composition of primary producers from the
Savanna river mudflats after the deepening of the Savannah Port.