On soil algae of the Kalahari Desert region

Biological soil crusts are found in alm ost every habitat in the world. [1] concluded that c rusts are a normal and frequent element of the vegetation in arid and semi-arid southwestern Africa. [2] studied the soil biota in South Africa and conclude that major knowledge gaps exist for most soil biota groups especially in the Nama-Karoo, Northern and Eastern Cape. This study looked at bacteria, fungi and invertebrates in the soil but did not include algae and cyanoprokaryotes. Therefore our study focused on these o rganisms in soil sampled in the Northern Cape an d North-West provinces (Augrabies National Park, Witsand Nature Reserve, Vryburg vicinities, and Highveld National Park). Samples were enriched with GB G11 growth medium and incubated under standard conditions. A method adapted fro m [3] and described in [4] was used to measure chlorophyll-a analysis. The counti ng of the cells was done according to the method described in [5], using an inverted microscope. The soil analysis was done in ac cordance with the standards set out by the Agricultural Laboratory Association of Southern A frica and the International Soil Analytical Exchange (ISE), Wageningen, The Netherlands. 19 GENERA (29 SPECIES) REPRESENT ED CYANOBACTERIA IN STUDIED SAMPLES AS WELL AS 4 ALGAL CLASSES – CHLORO PHYCEAE (12/16), BACILLARIOPHYCEAE (5/6), EUSTIGMATOPHYCEAE (1/1) AND X ANTHOPHYCEAE (1/1). MOST COMMON SPECIE S WERE MICROCOLEUS VAGINATUS GOMONT EX GOMONT (Fig. 1), NOSTOC SP., LEPTO LYNGBYA FOVEOLARA (GOMONT) ANAGNOSTIDIS KOMÁREK, BRACTEACOCCUS MINOR (C HODAT) PETROVÁ, CHLOROSARCINOPSIS MIN OR HERNDON, CHLORELLA SP., HANTZSCHIA AMPHIOXYS (EHRENBERG) GRUNOW IN CLEVE GRUNOW, LUTICOLA GOEPPERTIANA (BLEISCH ) MANN EX RARICK, WU, LEE EDLUND. LOWEST NUMBER OF CELLS PER GRAM OF S OIL WAS RECORDED IN AUGRABIES NATION AL PARK (4500) AND SPITSKOP (2740), BIIGGEST - IN WITSAND (1034800). ANALYSIS OF our results confirmed that algae and cyanobacteria are tolerant of most substrates and can colonize environ ments and produce significant biomass if moisture is present.

Biological soil crusts are found in alm ost every habitat in the world. [1] concluded that c rusts are a normal and frequent element of the vegetation in arid and semi-arid southwestern Africa. [2] studied the soil biota in South Africa and conclude that major knowledge gaps exist for most soil biota groups especially in the Nama-Karoo, Northern and Eastern Cape. This study looked at bacteria, fungi and invertebrates in the soil but did not include algae and cyanoprokaryotes. Therefore our study focused on these o rganisms in soil sampled in the Northern Cape an d North-West provinces (Augrabies National Park, Witsand Nature Reserve, Vryburg vicinities, and Highveld National Park). Samples were enriched with GB G11 growth medium and incubated under standard conditions. A method adapted fro m [3] and described in [4] was used to measure chlorophyll-a analysis. The counti ng of the cells was done according to the method described in [5], using an inverted microscope. The soil analysis was done in ac cordance with the standards set out by the Agricultural Laboratory Association of Southern A frica and the International Soil Analytical Exchange (ISE), Wageningen, The Netherlands. 19 GENERA (29 SPECIES) REPRESENT ED CYANOBACTERIA IN STUDIED SAMPLES AS WELL AS 4 ALGAL CLASSES – CHLORO PHYCEAE (12/16), BACILLARIOPHYCEAE (5/6), EUSTIGMATOPHYCEAE (1/1) AND X ANTHOPHYCEAE (1/1). MOST COMMON SPECIE S WERE MICROCOLEUS VAGINATUS GOMONT EX GOMONT (Fig. 1), NOSTOC SP., LEPTO LYNGBYA FOVEOLARA (GOMONT) ANAGNOSTIDIS KOMÁREK, BRACTEACOCCUS MINOR (C HODAT) PETROVÁ, CHLOROSARCINOPSIS MIN OR HERNDON, CHLORELLA SP., HANTZSCHIA AMPHIOXYS (EHRENBERG) GRUNOW IN CLEVE GRUNOW, LUTICOLA GOEPPERTIANA (BLEISCH ) MANN EX RARICK, WU, LEE EDLUND. LOWEST NUMBER OF CELLS PER GRAM OF S OIL WAS RECORDED IN AUGRABIES NATION AL PARK (4500) AND SPITSKOP (2740), BIIGGEST - IN WITSAND (1034800). ANALYSIS OF our results confirmed that algae and cyanobacteria are tolerant of most substrates and can colonize environ ments and produce significant biomass if moisture is present.