Kleine Senckenberg-Reihe

Mona Hoppenrath, Shauna A. Murray, Nicolas Chomérat, Takeo Horiguchi

Honoured with the Prescott Award 2015!

Dinoflagellates are important primary producers, symbionts, but, at the same time, also consumers and parasites. The species composition in benthic habitats is quite distinct from planktonic habitats. The lack of comprehensive taxonomic studies of these taxa has complicated our progress in understanding dinoflagellate biodiversity, biogeography, and ecology. In recent years, benthic harmful algal blooms have attracted increasing interest because of the impact of ciguatera, the most important food-borne disease of nonbacterial origin worldwide, which is caused by benthic dinoflagellate species. These taxa seem to have widened their distribution lately.

This book summarizes the knowledge about the currently known benthic dinoflagellate species for the first time.

It presents the first comprehensive identification help for benthic dinoflagellates and is a basic contribution to improve monitoring efforts worldwide. About 190 species in 45 genera are presented, illustrated with more than 200 color images, about 150 scanning electron micrographs, and more than 250 drawings.

Please find further Information:

Prescott Award 2015

Mona Hoppenrath, Malte Elbrächter, Gerhard Drebes

Marine phytoplankton forms the basis of the food web in the ocean. Phytoplankton is invisible to the naked eye however, under certain conditions, these micro-algae can actually be seen from a space satellite. According to NASA, phytoplankton produces between 50% and 90% of the oxygen in the air that we breathe, depending _mce_on the seasons. It also absorbs most of the C02 in the atmosphere, helping to maintain a balanced ecosystem which is essential for all life and a healthy planet. More than 99% of all creatures that live in the ocean depend, either directly or indirectly, on this phytoplankton for their survival. The present study describes almost 300 phytoplankton species from the North Sea around Helgoland and Sylt which are illustrated with around 1100 images and 70 line drawings on 85 plates. This book is an important contribution to our understanding of marine phytoplankton of North Sea ecosystems.

Please find further information here (PDF 3MB).