''Nitzschia'' is a common pennate marine diatom. In the scientific literature, this genus, named after

Christian Ludwig Nitzsch Christian Ludwig Nitzsch (3 September 1782 – 16 August 1837) was a German zoologist. He is best remembered for his approach to classifying birds on the basis of their feather tract distributions or pterylosis of their young. Career He was profes ...

, is sometimes termed ''Nitzchia'', and it has many species described, which all have a similar morphology.

Occurrence

''Nitzschia'' is found mostly in colder waters, and is associated with both

Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenland), Finland, Iceland, N ...

and Antarctic polar sea ice, where it is often found to be the dominant diatom. ''Nitzschia'' includes several species of diatoms known to produce the neurotoxin known as domoic acid, a toxin responsible for the human illness called

amnesic shellfish poisoning Amnesic shellfish poisoning (ASP) is an illness caused by consumption of shellfish that contain the marine biotoxin called domoic acid. In mammals, including humans, domoic acid acts as a neurotoxin, causing permanent short-term memory loss, bra ...

. The species '' N. frigida'' is found to grow exponentially even at temperatures between −4 and −6 °C. Some ''Nitzschia'' species are also

extremophile An extremophile (from Latin ' meaning "extreme" and Greek ' () meaning "love") is an organism that is able to live (or in some cases thrive) in extreme environments, i.e. environments that make survival challenging such as due to extreme temper ...

s by dent of tolerance to high salinity; for example, some

halophilic The halophiles, named after the Greek word for "salt-loving", are extremophiles that thrive in high salt concentrations. While most halophiles are classified into the domain Archaea, there are also bacterial halophiles and some eukaryotic species, ...

species of ''Nitzschia'' are found in the

Makgadikgadi Pans The Makgadikgadi Pan (Tswana pronunciation ), a salt pan situated in the middle of the dry savanna of north-eastern Botswana, is one of the largest salt flats in the world. The pan is all that remains of the formerly enormous Lake Makgadikg ...

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label= Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalaha ...

.C. Michael Hogan (2008
The Megalithic Portal, ed. A. Burnham
/ref>

Species

*'' Nitzschia acicularis'' *''

Nitzschia amphibia ''Nitzschia'' is a common pennate marine diatom. In the scientific literature, this genus, named after Christian Ludwig Nitzsch, is sometimes termed ''Nitzchia'', and it has many species described, which all have a similar morphology. Occurrence ...

'' *'' Nitzschia angustata'' *'' Nitzschia brevissima'' *'' Nitzschia clausii'' *''

Nitzschia denticula ''Nitzschia'' is a common pennate marine diatom. In the scientific literature, this genus, named after Christian Ludwig Nitzsch, is sometimes termed ''Nitzchia'', and it has many species described, which all have a similar morphology. Occurrence ...

'' *'' Nitzschia disputata'' *'' Nitzschia dissipata'' *'' Nitzschia filiformis'' *'' Nitzschia fonticula'' *'' Nitzschia frigida'' *'' Nitzschia gracilis'' *'' Nitzschia frigida'' *'' Nitzschia heuflerania'' *'' Nitzschia frigida'' *'' Nitzschia lacuum'' *'' Nitzschia palea'' *'' Nitzschia perminuta'' *'' Nitzschia pusill'' *''

Nitzschia recta ''Nitzschia'' is a common pennate marine diatom. In the scientific literature, this genus, named after Christian Ludwig Nitzsch, is sometimes termed ''Nitzchia'', and it has many species described, which all have a similar morphology. Occurrence ...

'' *'' Nitzschia sigma'' *'' Nitzschia sigmoidea'' *'' Nitzschia sinuata'' *'' Nitzschia tubicola'' For more information: http://www.algaebase.org/search/genus/detail/?genus_id=43680

References

External links

* Bacillariales Taxa named by Arthur Hill Hassall Diatom genera {{Diatom-stub