Nitzschia perminuta

This taxon has been reported with light micrographs from northern Québec and Labrador (Fallu et al. 2000), the Canadian Arctic Archipelago (Antoniades et al. 2008), the Atlantic Coastal Plain (Siver and Hamilton 2011), and Western North America (Bahls 2023).

In the Great Lakes National Parks (Edlund et al. 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013), this taxon is common (5-25% abundance) in sediment core material from Apostle Islands (Outer Lake) and uncommon (1-5% abundance) to rare (0.1-1% abundance) at Isle Royale (Richie and Ahmik lakes), Pictured Rocks (Grand Sable Lake), Voyageurs (Mukooda, Ek, Brown and Cruiser lakes), Sleeping Bear Dunes (Florence Lake), and St. Croix Scenic Riverway (Lake St. Croix).

This taxon is known to occur in ponds, lakes and streams with cool, weakly alkaline water of moderate conductivity and nutrient content (Bahls 2023).

Many research groups consider this taxon an indicator organism and published regional environmental optima and tolerances including:

Fallu et al. (2000): Dissolved Organic Carbon - 6.39 +/- 1.52 mg/L for “form 1 QUEBEC”, 5.05 +/- 1.53 mg/L for “form 2 QUEBEC”, Color - 14 +/- 3.0 Pt units, Alkalinity - 37 +/- 2.3 µeq/L for populations from northern Québec and Labrador.

Antoniades et al. (2008): pH - 7.8, Tolerance Range - 7.1-8.5, Conductivity - 135 µS/cm, Tolerance Range - 47-386 µS/cm, Dissolved Organic Carbon - 3.19 mg/L, Tolerance Range - 1.50-6.81 µS/cm for populations from the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.

Siver and Hamilton (2011): Abundance Weighted Mean (AWM) pH - 6.4 +/- 0.7, AWM total phosphorus (TP) - 10.9 +/- 3.2 µg/L.

Bahls (2023): Conductivity - 573 µS/cm, pH - 7.5, Temperature - 14.6°C, Total Nitrogen - 1.25 mg/L, TP - 149 µg/L.