The Importance of Fungi in the Sea 301 



physiology, and may live in sea water as well as in fresh water 

 (20, 55). The term "marine" for a given species does not mean 

 that it occurs in sea water only. As there are no distinctive 

 separations between many fields of biology, it is nearly impos- 

 sible to separate clearly marine and aquatic mycology. Hence, 

 sometimes it may be doubtful whether a species should better be 

 called "marine" or "limnic." Gold (20) proposes as another 

 criterion whether a species is marine or not, "the salinity at 

 which optimum growth and reproduction occur and not saline 

 tolerance of that organism." 



ADAPTATION TO ENVIRONMENT 



Morphological Adaptation 



In general, fungal hyphae of the different taxonomic groups 

 look very much alike and any morphological variability can only 

 be expected to occur in the reproductive organs. Among marine 

 Deuteromycetes there are quite a few different shapes of conidia 

 but only a few species show morphological adaptation of the 

 conidia to the water. We know only two examples: Dinema^por- 

 iwn marinum Nilsson and Orhiinyces spectabilis Linder, both 

 provided with spore appendages. It is a surprising fact that spore 

 appendages in this group are so rare, as— on the contrary— Deu- 

 teromycetes occurring in fresh water mostly have filamentous 

 spores that often are provided with processes enabling them to 

 float for a long time in water (23, 43, 46). Also, the spores of 

 most marine Ascomycetes possess appendages that assist them 

 to float and to attach and, hence, their absence in marine Fungi 

 Imperfecti is difficult to explain. Most probably, the imperfect 

 fungi of the sea are more closely related to terrestrial forms than 

 marine Ascomycetes are to their respective counterparts of the 

 land. This may be concluded by the fact that species of marine 

 Deuteromycetes predominantly belong to genera that are com- 

 mon on land. The only known exceptions are species of the 

 following monotypic genera which were found only in the sea: 

 Botryophialophora Linder, Cirrenalia Meyers et Moore, Cre- 

 masteria Meyers et Moore, Culcitalna Meyers et Moore, Orbi- 

 mxjces Linder and Phialophorophoma Linder. 



Many of the ascospores of the marine Ascomycetes are 



