Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c47g7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T06:58:33.960Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Some Anatomical and Physiological Differences in Chorda Filum from Coastal Waters of Finland and Great Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

G. Russell
G. Russell
Affiliation:
Hartley Botanical Laboratories, The University, Liverpool L69 3BX
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

A comparative study of Chorda filum populations from the British Isles (S 34‰) and the Baltic coast of Finland (S 6‰) has revealed differences in response by live adult thalli to treatment for 2 h with sea water of different salinities. Water uptake and loss by thalli differed significantly in salinities of х o‚ х 1/6, х ⅓ and х 1 ( = 34‰). British material showed severe cell disruption in freshwater whereas Finnish material did not. Killed thalli also behaved differently, British material showing little response to salinity treatment but Finnish plants continuing to react much as live tissues.

Anatomical differences between populations were also observed, cortical cells in Finnish plants being significantly smaller than their British counterparts. Diaphragms traversing lumens of British material were simple, entire structures, but those in Finnish plants were deeply dissected and complex in organization.

It is postulated that Baltic Chorda may have undergone a process of evolutionary divergence in response to its changed saline environment.

INTRODUCTION

Chorda filum (L.) Stackh. is one of several species of north Atlantic Phaeophyceae to be found in the inner Baltic Sea and Gulf of Bothnia; its geographical limit being associated with sea water salinity of approximately 4‰, (Waern, 1952; Hällfors et al. 1981). This species has been studied by Norton & South (1969) and South (1966) who traced the development of gametophytes and early sporophytes in culture media of different salinites. Although their cultures had been established from British material only, they felt able to argue from their results that the Baltic population did not constitute ‘… a different physiological strain specially adapted to the extreme environmental conditions prevailing there’.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 65 , Issue 2 , May 1985 , pp. 343 - 349
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Hällfors, G., Niemi, A., Ackefors, H., Lassig, J. & Leppakoski, E., 1981. Biological oceanography. In The Baltic Sea (ed. A., Voipio), pp. 219–274. Amsterdam: Elsevier Scientific Publishing Co.Google Scholar
Norton, T. A. & South, G. R., 1969. Influence of reduced salinity on the distribution of two laminarian algae. Oikos, 20, 320–326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reed, R. H., 1983. The osmotic responses of Polysiphonia lanosa (L.) Tandy from marine and estuarine sites: evidence for incomplete recovery of turgor. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 68, 169–193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reed, R. H. & Barron, J. A., 1983. Physiological adaptation to salinity change in Pilayella littoralis from marine and estuarine sites. Botanica marina, 26, 409–416.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reed, R. H., Collins, J. C. & Russell, G., 1980 A. The effects of salinity upon cellular volume of the marine red alga Porphyra purpurea (Roth) C. Ag. Journal of Experimental Botany, 31, 1521–1537.Google Scholar
Reed, R. H., Collins, J. C, & Russell, G., 1980 b. The effects of salinity upon galactosyl-glycerol content and concentration of the marine red alga Porphyra purpurea (Roth). C. Ag. Journal of Experimental Botany, 31, 1539–1554.Google Scholar
Reed, R. H., Collins, J. C, & Russell, G., 1981. The effects of salinity upon ion content and ion transport of the marine red alga Porphyra purpurea (Roth) C. Ag. Journal of Experimental Botany, 32, 347–367.Google Scholar
Rueness, J., 1978. Hybridization in red alga. In Modern Approaches to the Taxonomy of Red and Brown Algae (ed. Irvine, D. E. G. and Price, J. H.), pp. 247–262. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
South, G. R., 1966. An Experimental Approach to the Autecology of Chorda filum (L.) Stackh. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Liverpool.Google Scholar
Waern, M., 1952. The rocky-shore algae in the Öregrund archipelago. Acta phytogeographica suecica, 30, 298 pp.Google Scholar