CHAPTER V PLANT AND ANIMAL COMMUNITIES Blank page retained for pagination PHYTOPLANKTON OF THE GULF OF MEXICO

concerning the interesting distribution of Bid-dulphia sinensis Greville, found it necessary to speak of "La carenzia absoluta de estudios sis-tematicos del plancton en anos anteriores en las nguas del Caribe y del Golfo de Mexico..." It is true still that little has been done on tax-onomic studies of Gulf of Mexico phytoplankters, and even fewer ecological studies have been made. The earliest published observations on the phytoplankton of the Gulf of Mexico appear to be those of Alexander Agassiz (1888) who men-tioned, in very general terms, the occurrence of Coccolithophoridae in the central regions of the Gulf. He mentioned more specifically the occur-rence of large chains and patches "of dirty yellow color " of the filamentous blue-green alga he identified as "probably " the same as the Tri-chodesmium erythraeum that is so famous in the Red Sea. Dr. Drouet of the Chicago Natural History Museum has identified the most common filamentous blue-green alga from Florida and Texas lllarine waters as Skujaella [Trichodesmium] thiebauti (Davis, 1950), and probably this is the species referred to above. Agassiz also referred to the occurrence everywhere, but in small patches only, of a species of Sargassum. From the time of Agassiz ' (op. cit.) early super-ficia.l report until 1937 there were no detailed reports on Gulf of Mexico phytoplankters other than individual species records such as that of Taylor (1928) who listed the occurrence of Skujaella [Trichodesmium] thiebauti and of two Common pelagic species of Sargassum (S. natans and S. jluitans) near or at the Tortugas Labora-tory. In addition, there were certain other studies made at the Tortugas Laboratory which, hOwever, appear not to have been reported in detail. Thus, Grave and Burkenroad (1928-29) reported diatoms among those plankters that were abundant or that occurred regularly, while Conge