THE SOIL ALGAL COMMUNITY. II. SOVIET SOIL STUDIES

SUMMARY The enormous quantity of work done in the Soviet Union is inadequately known elsewhere. Soviet generalizations rest on extensive data published in the Russian and Ukranian languages. The primary criterion of community analysis is now the total algal flora, but it is foreseen that the ecology of individual species is a more desirable parameter. Methods of sampling and culture in the Soviet Union are largely the same as those used elsewhere. The basic problems of sampling and quantification have not been solved yet. It is felt that the prerequisite to understanding the Soviet experience is a commonly held taxonomy. Soviet taxonomists are judged as fully competent, but lack communications with outside taxonomists in respect to methodology and references. As a contribution to the common understanding, new identifications of Soviet species (mostly blue-greens) are included in this paper. These were derived from: a study of moist soil dishes from collections made according to a horizontal distribution plan in a single field; collections from near Leningrad, Middle Asia (Alma-Ata, Tashkent, Samarkand, Buchara); liquid cultures of soil collected by a Soviet investigator in Kazakistan; and agar cultures of soil algae which are maintained in Soviet laboratories. Also included is a selected bibliography, in English translation, of 71 Soviet publications.