B. Papp szerk.: Studia Botanica Hungarica 36. 2005 (Budapest, 2005)
Buczkó, Krisztina; Wojtal, A.: Moss inhabiting siliceous algae from Hungarian peat bogs
were mainly restricted to the treeless Arctic and Antarctic regions (e.g. VAN DE VIJVER and BEYENS 1997, ALFINITO et al. 1998, DOUGLAS and SMOL 1995, 1999). Only a few Hungarian records are available about moss inhabiting algae (reviewed in BUCZKÓ 2003). To catch up with this field, as an initial step, a study of the diatoms living on peat mosses was recently undertaken. In the planning process of the present study about the coexistence of algae and peat mosses an excellent opportunity was offered by the ongoing detailed survey on Hungarian peat mosses. The occurrences and changes of the distribution of Sphagna have been summarised by SZURDOKI and NAGY (2002), and SZURDOKI (2003). On the basis of these contributions in the present algological study we attempted to obtain wide spectra about the distribution of siliceous algae living on Sphagna and some other peat mosses. The dataset of mosses within the study consisted of 13 taxa from 11 localities, representing the most characteristic mires of Hungary. Initially, the primary aim was to contribute to the knowledge of bryophytic diatoms in mires, but the presence and - in some cases the high abundance of Chrysophycean cysts - drew our attention to the distribution of the latter as well. Chrysophytes (Chrysophyceae and Synurophyceae) are a common and diverse group of peat bog algae. They produce siliceous structures such as diatom's frustules, chrysophyte scales, and stomatocysts. Due to species-specific environmental preferences (sensitivity) they are also useful markers in biomonitoring. Chrysophycean cysts have been intensively studied during the last two decades all over the world and used in palaeoenvironmental reconstruction which has been greatly assisted by increasing availability of SEM studies. In Hungary, there are only a few brief reports on Chrysophycean stomatocyst, usually only referring to their coexistence with diatoms or other algae (VÍZKELETY 1987, UHERKOVICH 1979). The present paper would like to provide some of the first SEM images of this unique group largely unknown from Hungarian mires to date. MATERIAL AND METHODS Siliceous algae from 11 locations were sampled (Fig. 1). Location and habitat descriptions of the mires, their present conservation status and the sampling procedure applied have been described in ODOR etal. (1996), SZURDOKI and NAGY (2002), and SZURDOKI (2003). The mosses were collected and identified by E. Szurdoki between 1993 and 1995, as a part of her PhD study. Some complementary collections were carried out in 2003. Sampling method: we soaked dry samples (herbarium specimens) in water and washed them to get the diatom samples. The diatoms were treated with H 2 0 2 in order to remove the organic material, after which the preparata were embedded into Zrax. For LM, a Leica DM LB2 was used with HCX
