Cosmarium is characterized by having generally solitary cells, semicells rounded, reniform, pyramidate, quadrate with entire or undulate margin; subcircular to elongate-oval (biradiate) in apical view; cell wall smooth with scattered pores or ornamented; one to several chloroplasts per semicell, axial or parietal, and as well as other
desmids generally inhabit acidic, oligotrophic, aquatic environments and occasionally subaerial or in basic, eutrophic water (Guiry and Guiry, 2017).
######## GA, 36.5 Crustacea, 0.3 BGA, 12.8 Insect, 1.1 Diatom, 25.4
Desmids, 11.0 Protozoa, 3.2 Misc., 9.7 Rotifer, 0.1 ##### Note: Table made from pie chart.
The algal community is thus delimited to a few species capable of exploiting these extreme conditions (Devercelli, 2010), which are usually small unicellular pennate diatoms and
desmids (Reynolds, 2006; Soares et al., 2007).
A contribution to knowledge of the
desmid flora (Desmidiaceae, Zygnemaphyceae) of Spitzbergen.
During the summer many species of cyanobacteria, diatoms such as Asterionella and Fragellaria, dinoflagellates,
desmids, calanoid copepods, and cladocerans are present whereas in the winter there are centric diatoms, calanoid copepods, the cyanobacterium Anabacna, and small flagellated algae.
Conjugating green algae and
desmids. In Freshwater Algae of North America.
Some of the important freshwater algae species are microscopic green "
desmids", which are characteristic of acidic standing water in northerly and westerly parts of the British Isles, and are often important as the base of the food web where they are found.
Over a third of all algal species identified to date belong to the large group of algae known as
Desmids. Chemical and physical measurements of pH, dissolved oxygen, water temperature and photometric readings (P.A.R.) were also recorded throughout the water column or at each sampling depth for each sampling date.
Protist movements include swimming, surface gliding (benthic diatoms,
desmids), or crawling (ameboid movement due to protoplasmic streaming).
This is true of many
desmids and diatoms found in the Andean lakes in Colombia.