ANABAENA VARIABILIS VAR. KASHINESIS (NOSTOCACEAE, CYANOPHYTA); A NEW RECORD OF CYANOPHYTA FOR ALGAL FLORA OF IRAN - A MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH

A new morphospecies, Anabaena variabilis var. kashinesis (Bharadwaja) Fritsch (Nostocaaceae, Cyanophyta) is reported for algal flora of Iran. The specimens were collected at 2013 from paddy fields of Golestan province. After isolation and uniculture in both liquid and solid media the variety was identified using optical, fluorescence and scanning electron microscope (SEM) techniques based on Morphological characteristics and behavioral analysis under different temperature and carbon dioxide concentration at limited irradiance (2μE m-2 s-1) which is the first combined method of phytoplankton studies in Iran. Regarding biological versatility of cyanophyta, the study emphasized on most morphological characteristics of the variety and a new description of Anabaena variabilis var. kashinesis (Bharadwaja) Fritsch has been presented in this paper.