SEM studied diatoms of different regions of the world ocean

From the abstract: The book presents extensive data on the plankton diatoms collected at 75 stations during many oceanographic expeditions of Russian research ships and investigated in scanning electron microscope (SEM). The sampling sites were located in three main phytogeographical regions: the Arcto Boreal (Bering Sea, North Pacific, North Atlantic and White Sea), Tropical (Equatorial and Eastern Pacific near North and South American coasts), and the Subantarctic and Antarctic (Atlantic and Pacific sectors and the stations southward of New Zealand). Totally 139 plates with 560 SEM - micrographs illustrate 110 diatom species. The number of the identified centric species was twice as much as the pennate species. The detailed morphological description along with geographical and ecological distribution are given for almost all of these species. Some rare peculiarities of frustule structure are described. The size range is given for each species. Most of the species belong to micro- phytoplankton and only a few of them belong to nano- and macro- phytoplankton. Seven types of distribution ranges are considered (arcto - boreal, boreal - pacific, tropical, notal - antarctic, bipolar, boreal - notal and cosmopolitan) with the description of the typical species and their ecological characteristics. It was shown that ecologically the neritic and panthalassic species are common among the plankton diatoms, and truly oceanic species are very rare. Different distribution patterns were discussed in relation to each species type. The arcto - boreal and tropical neritic species exhibit circumcontinental and the panthalassic species latitudinal type of zonation. The distribution of the notal - antarctic ice - neritic species has the similar pattern as the arcto - boreal and tropical neritic species, but with additional influence of latitudinal zonation.