I am sampling local streams for invertebrates and algae, and came across this alga 10 days ago. I only found one rock with obvious growth in the pool I was in, and it had what I took to be two different types - the filamentous one is Draparnaldia, and the spherical one I thought was probably some species of Chlorella. The odd thing was that the two types were in very close proximity.
- Taken March 2, 2024
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- taken March 2, 2024
- 2024-03-02-09.48.00 ZS DMap.jpg (288.93 KiB) Viewed 273 times
I was back at the same pool 10 days later, and found a different situation - quite a few rocks were now covered with algae in a sort of slippery gelatinous matrix of Draparnaldia filaments, but the small spherical ones were absent.
- taken March 12, 2024
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There were loose clumps of unattached algae in the sand gravel stream bed
- taken March 12, 2024
- EOS M200_3791.JPG (209.1 KiB) Viewed 273 times
On a hunch I thought maybe the spherical alga I found earlier was some reproductive product of Draparnaldia and not a different organism - and it was. It is the asexual zoospore formed as a resting stage and activated with water availability.
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