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Found this journal, Inland Water Biology. There are wonderfull photo's of diatoms by S.I. Genkal. And many articles about zooplankton too, this fascinating group that many times is forgotten. What makes it extra interesting on these lati- and longitudes is the fact that many articles deal with Karelian waters. Take a look!

I often feel quite uncomfortable, when I see some strange green balls under the microscope. If these green algae are the kind that I don't know so well. And if I have difficulties identifying them. So that I don't know in which group they belong to. So that I don't now their background. So that I don't know how I should handle them. It does not feel good.In these cases there is nothing else for me to do, than to leave them for what they are and call them with a group name, like Chlorophyceae, that covers all the possible green balls. And keep on hoping, that One Day I will find the information...

Got this telephone call from a consulting company. There had been complaints that something smelled like cow dung at a lake, so they took a sample from the ice on this lake. The farmers are not yet busy... They could see something in the sample.I had some difficulties trying to identify the species on the telephone... In the last sample of the year there had been a lot of the diatom Aulacoseira islandica. Perhaps it was that. I asked if they could send me a some of that sample. They could.This is what I saw:Aulacoseira indeed. And after a closer look I could be positive, that it is islandica.&...