Batophora oerstedi & Acetabularia crenulata green algae (Reckley Hill Pond, San Salvador Island, Bahamas) - 4

Description:

Batophora oerstedi Agardh, 1854 & Acetabularia crenulata Lamouroux, 1816 green algae in Reckley Hill Pond, northeastern San Salvador Island, eastern Bahamas. San Salvador Island has numerous inland bodies of water (see map - newton.newhaven.edu/sansalvador/ssmap_11x17.PDF). Christopher Columbus remarked upon them during his visit in October 1492. These ponds and lakes can have freshwater, brackish water, hyposaline water, normal marine-salinity water, or hypersaline water. Many of these lakes have aquatic biotas quite distinctive from adjacent lakes. Reckley Hill Pond is a hyposaline to hypersaline lake just southeast of the Bahamas Field Station. Reported water salinities range from 18 to 66 ppt, averaging around 47 ppt (cf. normal marine water at about 35 ppt). I measured 45 ppt salinity here on 24 March 1999. The most common algae seen along the southern shoreline of Reckley Hill Pond are two green algae species. Batophora oerstedi is fuzzy finger algae (Plantae, Chlorophyta, Dasycladales, Dasycladaceae) (= dark green fuzzy structures in the above photo). Acetabularia crenulata is white mermaid's wine glass algae (Plantae, Chlorophyta, Dasycladales, Polyphysaceae) (= whitish to whitish-green cup structures on thin stalks in the above photo).