TASS, August 22. Russian scientists found in the Kara Sea a new species of diatoms, named Fragilaria shirshovii in memory of Pyotr Shirshov, one of the first Arctic explorers, the Russian Science Foundation's press service said adding by surveying the population scientists will improve the Arctic's ecology monitoring.

A group of biologists, led by Nikolay Lobus of the Institute of Physiology of Plants (the Russian Academy of Sciences), came across the diatoms when they tested water samples from the Ob River that runs into the Kara Sea. The river is bringing huge amounts of fresh water that lower salinity in the Kara Sea's Gulf of Ob.

"Russian scientists have found and described new microalgae, named after one of the first Arctic explorers - Academician Pyotr Shirshov. Diatom Fragilaria shirshovii may become a promising object for the ecology monitoring and assessment of the human impact on the environment," the press service said.

The Russian scientists studied that part of the Kara Sea during the Arctic Floating University expedition, where they sampled water from the Gulf of Ob, where fresh river waters get actively mixed with the Arctic Ocean's salt water. When testing those samples, Lobus and his colleagues indentified cells of an unknown type of diatom. The scientists used a microscope, and analyzed the DNA structure. They found that the new species belongs to the genus Fragilaria that lives both in fresh and salt water.

The new algae type clearly differs in appearance and properties from other representatives of that genus, and thus may be used as an additional tool to monitor the environment in combination with other diatoms sensitive to human impact on nature, the researchers say.

Diatoms are unicellular algae with silica shells. Their only cell is covered with two caps (sashes), connected to each other. Experts say there are up to 300,000 species of diatoms in the world, but only a small part has been described - about 20,000. "Diatoms are one of the key objects used to assess water quality and to monitor ecosystems around the world, so the description of new taxa, along with understanding their ecology, complements our knowledge and expands the tools we are using," the Russian Ministry of Science and Higher Education's press service said earlier.