Syllabus
1. a) Phototrophic bacteria (Cyanobacteria). Cyanobacteria as the ancestors of the plant plastids, oxygenic photosynthesis, assimilation pigments.
Occurrence in nature; importance, classification. Cyanobacterial water blooms and their ecological significance. b) Plants (Archaeplastida, Plantae) - a group comprising of the primary phototrophic eukaryotic organisms.
Important structural features (plastid diversity, cell wall, flagella, pigments, phycobilisomes, storage compounds, etc.). 2. a) Glaucophyta. The smallest of the three deep plant lineages (subkingdoms).
Cyanelles - plant plastids with plesiomorphic features. The overview of the diversity and distribution of taxa. b) Rhodoplantae (red algae).
Red algal phylogeny and fossil record. Important joint features (cell walls, absence of the flagellar stages, storage compounds). c) Cyanidiophyta.
Unicellular red algae with plesiomorphic features. Distribution in natural ecosystems; facultative anaerobic metabolism.
Diversity and autecology of individual lineages. Extreme habitats as prime spots for the Cyanidiophyta.
Peculiar features of the cyanidiophytan cell cycle and ontogeny. d) Rhodophyta 1. Unicellular and filamentous lineages (Rhodellophyceae, Stylonematophyceae, Porphyridiophyceae, Compsopogonophyceae).
Bangiophyceae, two basic morphological types, gondwanic origin. Marine lineages and a single transition to freshwater habitats.
The bangiophycean life cycle. Economic importance of the genus Porphyra. 3) a) Florideophyceae - phylogenetic structure, life cycle characteristics (duplication of the diploid stage) and sexual reproduction.
Diversity and survey of the important taxa. Freshwater lineages (Hildenbrandiophycideae, Batrachospermales, Thoreales) and their ecological features.
Examples of the natural communities of the marine red algae - coral ecosystems (Corallinales and andjacent lineages), rhodolites, maerl, cold water red algae, ephemeral filamentous red algae, shade-loving rhodophytes of the lower sub-littoral, brackish rhodophytes of the Baltic Sea. 4) a) Viridiplantae (green plants). Key structural features of the green lineage (cell walls, flagella, plastids, pigments).
Mitosis and cytokinesis of green algae. Phylogenetic structure of the Viridiplantae - the chlorophyte and streptophyte lineages, classification scheme. b) Plesiomorphic lineages of the Chlorophyta - "prasinophyte" flagellates (Nephroselmidophyceae, Mamiellophyceae, Prasinophyceae, Pedinophyceae, Chlorodendrophyceae).
Surface structures, flagella, life cycles. Natural distribution, massive picoplanktonic marine populations, freshwater taxa, molecular diversity. c) Trebouxiophyceae.
Morphological diversity, natural distribution. Trebouxiophycean lichen photobionts (Trebouxiales).
Terrestrial microalgae (Prasiolales, chlorelloid groups) - soil microbiota, subaerial biofilms, surface crusts. Planktonic lineages - Chlorellaceae, Oocystaceae.
Biotechnological, pharmaceutical and industrial use of the chlorelloid a botryococcal microalgae. 5) a) Chlorophyceae. Morphology, diversity a distribution.
Coenobia - unique chlorophycean multicellularity (ontogeny, reproduction, diversity of the coenobial forms). Dominants of the eutrophic freshwater phytoplankton (Chlamydomonadales, Scenedesmaceae, Pediastrum s.l.).
Mass cultivation of the chlorophycean microalgae for production of carotenoids, pigments and lipids (Haematococcus, Dunaliella, Muriellopsis, etc.). b) Ulvophyceae. Thallus structure - filamentous and siphonous macroscopic forms.
Important groups and representatives of the marine ulvophycean vegetation (Bryopsidales, Caulerpales, Ulvales). Examples of important ulvophycean invasions in marine habitats (Caulerpa taxifolia, C. racemosa).
Cladophorales - siphonous thalli, distribution in freshwater and marine habitats, survey of important taxa. The Trentepohliales as a unique terrestrial green algal group.
Thallu structure, ontogeny. Distribution and significance of the Trentepohliales in humid tropical ecosystems; the Trentepohliales as leaf parasites of the vascular plants. 6) a) Streptophyte green algal lineages.
Phylogenetic structure, correlation with fossil data and evolution of the global ecosystem. Plesiomorphic lineages- Mesostigmatophyceae, Chlorokybophyceae, Klebsormidiophyceae. b) Coleochaetophyceae - oogamic sexual reproduction, morphology, natural distribution.
Zygnematophyceae - defining features (isogamy, conjugation, absence of flagellate stages). Filamentous forms (Zygnema, Spirogyra, etc.).
Desmidiales (desmids) - morphological radiation, unique asexual reproduction and cell structure (semicells). Distribution in natural ecosystems (peatlands, oligotrophic wetlands), biomonitoring of the ecological status, biogeography of desmids. c) Charophyceae (stoneworts).
Morphological structure of the charophycean thallus, reproduction, ontogeny. Autecological features - distribution in oligotrophic wetlands and lakes.
Brackish stoneworts (Baltic littoral habitats). 7) a) Eukaryotic lineages with secondary (tertiary) plastids. The lineages with secondary chloroplasts, examples of taxa.
Secondary rhodoplasts, examples of taxa. Ecologically and economically important groups.
Haptophyta and their significance for the carbon cycle in marine phytoplankton. Dinoflagellates and cryptomonads in the freshwater and marine phytoplankton. b) Heterokontophyceae and the independent evolution of the phototrophic multicellular thalli.
Xanthophyceae - asexual lineages and oogamous genera. Distribution in terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems.
Bacillariophyceae (diatoms) - morphological structure, ontogeny, phylogeny. Diversity of important planktonic and benthic diatom genera, distribution in natural habitats, European monitoring schemes of the environmental status of freshwater habitats. 8) a) Phaeophyceae (seaweeds).
Phylogenetic structure, life cycle characteristics (diversity of the sexual reproduction). Diversity and survey of the important genera.
Important examples of the seaweed communities - kelp forests (Laminariales, Desmarestiales), seaweed belts of the cold water eulittoral (Fucales), ephemeral filamentous seaweeds (Ectocarpales, etc.), brackish sublittoral seaweeds of the Baltic Sea. Subtropical and tropical seaweeds (Dictyotales, Cystoseiraceae, etc.).
Pelagic seaweeds of the Sargasso Sea. Examples of the seaweed invasions (Colpomenia, Undaria). 9) a) Lichenes (lichens).
Ecological characteristics. Morphology and anatomy of lichens.
Mycobionts - Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, differences in life cycles. Photobionts, main groups - overview.
Phylogenetic structure, fossils. Physiology of lichens - reviviscence, continual metabolism, etc.
Substrate specificity, epiphytes, terricolous, saxicolous species. Secondary metabolites. 10) a) Lichenes - classification and phylogeny.
Ascomycota: Chaetothyriomycetes (Verrucariales) diversity and main genera, endolithic lichens. Acarosporomycetidae (Rhizocarpaceae, etc.) - thallus specifications (areoles), saxicolous species, acidic rock communities.
Lecanoromycetes: Cladoniaceae - boreal forests, tundra. Peltigerares, Parmeliaceae, etc. - mesophilous macrolichens, more photobionts.
Collemataceae - cyanolichens. Basidiomycota - Agaricales: basidiolichens.
Lichens uses. 11) a) Bryophyta (phylogenetic group bryophytes). Phylogeny, characteristics, life cycles.
Sexual and asexual reproduction. Differences in life cycle of hepatics, hornworts and mosses. b) Anthocerotophyta (hornworts).
Characteristics, diversity. Ephemerous species. c) Marchantiophyta (hepatics).
Characteristics, diversity. Jungermanniopsida, Marchantiopsida - frondose and foliose types, examples of thallus types, silica vesicles. 12) a) Marchantiophyta - important examples of species. b) Bryophyta (mosses) - characteristics of the group, important features.
Main groups and characteristic biotopes - moorlands, diversity, examples. Polytrichopsida, Andraeopsida, Bryopsida - diversity, examples.
Important communities of the bryophytes - extreme dry conditions, stress adaptations to dryness. Water bryophytes.
Use of the bryophytes, bioindication.
Annotation
The course includes lectures on diversity, distribution and phylogeny of the non-vascular plants (algae, lichens, bryophytes). The lectures also concentrate on morphology of the vegetative and reproductive structures, as well as on the important identification features.
The diversity overview is concentrated on ecologically important representatives of the natural ecosystems and on economically important taxa.