Dear Prof. Andrey,

I understand Periphyton as the communities of algae in aquatic systems that are attached to the surface of sediment,   stone orany artificial material or   aquatic plant .

Benthos refers to the littoral and supralittoral zone dwellers  of the shore.

Larger,visible, benthic organisms that are greater than 1 mm in size are called Macrobenthos

Tiny benthic organisms that are less than 1 mm but greater than 0.1 mm in size form the Meiobenthos.

Benthic organisms less than 0.1 mm in size are called microbenthos.

Hope the following paper is helpful !

Comparison of phytoplankton, periphyton, and benthic algae in two different beach pools off of Douglas Lake.,Gulley, Ann Ruth; Kennedy, Carolyn Ann,1987,http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/53911

Good luck!

Periphyton is a part of microphytobenthos (benthic microalgae = cyanobacteria / cyanophyta and eucaryotic algae),

Periphyton algae are the "Bewuchs" or "Aufwuchs" (in German) at macroalgae (stoneworts = Charales), bryophytes or higher water plants.

With best regards

Lothar Täuscher

Dr. rer. nat. Lothar Täuscher

- Diplombiologe -

Petersburger Str. 44

D-10249 Berlin

Dear Jackson and Lothar,

Yeah, but both examples you mean is phytoperiphyton. I agree, but normally under periphyton we mean all community – algae, protists, animals etc. If community is living on macrophytes its name will be epiphytos (or –n). But in both cases we have area – two dimensions! No vertical structure. This mean other type of ecological niche, than in benthic biotopes where is one more axis. So, it mean more possibilities of coexistence as can differ vertical locality being the same plot in area, and the same time and feeding spectrum.

Different approaches into the question of Periphyton is described in the articles and books of Prof. Alexander Protasov from the Institute of hydrobiology of Ukrainian Ac. Sci. et al.

The problem I’m trying to rise is dependence of value of type of living form on the size of area occupied by specimen or by sub-community. Like type of distribution can change due to the area of investigation or sampling area, it looks that size of “particles” (like stones size) should be enough large to compose enough developed community. But what about the lower size limit?

The other question is efforts to put benthic or other organisms into some size limits (microbenthos, mesobenthos, macrobenthos). How to compare in this case the data of different authors? Where to put e.g. nematods, that have representatives in all three groups?

Every step is producing more and more questions... Should speak and discuss.

Andrey

Dear Andrey

There is also another meaning to periphyton - from the Greek 'around a plant' it can mean the organisms (aufwuchs or fouling organisms) that form a biofilm on a plant's surface. These are usually predominantly algae early in the year, with the contribution from animals (ciliates, bryozoans, sponges) increasing towards autumn.

The literature also uses the term to mean 'plants (usually algae) growing on any hard surface'.

Others have expressed very clearly the divisions of benthos, in itself a general term meaning bottom-living biota that you can adapt or refine to suit your own research interests. Organisms in/on mud differ from those on stones.

Best wishes

Julian

So, in yours opinion Julian is not mistake to name communities on the stones (like pebble) in the Carpathians Mountains Rivers as periphyton? Anyway, we noted giant difference between microbenthic and microperiphytic communities. First are normally much richer.

Andrey

Yes, as you said in your reply to Jackson and Lothar, you can use terms like 'epiphytic', 'epipelic', 'epilithic' to distinguish communities on plants, mud or stones. It is interesting that you found big differences in richness between communities - perhaps the plants exuded allelopathic factors?

Best wishes, Julian

I agree, Julian but may be this allelopathia is not the only one reason, and can be more important in differences between epiphytic communities on different macrophytes. For my mind in benthos more important can be bottom physico-chemical situation, as for periphyton it is the same (or practically the same) with plankton in running waters. As well stability. In the mountain rivers during freshets and floods stones are cleaned till glance and periphyton appear again through colonization by some vagant benthic forms and syrton from the old-channels and waters from flood plain.

Sincerely, Andrey

Thanks