Freshwater and Terrestrial Algae from Ny-Alesund and Blomstrandhalvoya Island (Svalbard)

Abstract

A field survey of algae and cyanobacteria from terrestrial and freshwater habitats in the vicinity of Ny-Alesund and on Blomstrandhalvoya Island (Svalbard) was performed in June 2009, and results were compared with data from our fieldwork in June 2006. In total, we identified 30 taxa belonging to 23 genera from the specimens collected near Ny-Alesund (26 taxa) and on Blomstrandhalvoya Island (24 taxa). Five species previously unrecorded from this locality are depicted, including astaxanthin-containing Haematococcus sp. collected from Blomstrandhalvoya Island. This is the first report on a Haematococcus species from the High Arctic.