Vegetative survival and reproduction under submerged and air-exposed conditions and vegetative survival as affected by salts, pesticides, and metals in aerial green alga Trentepohlia aurea.

Trentepohlia aurea vegetative cells do not survive submerged conditions for more than 5 months, but can survive air-exposed conditions for more than 1 year. Disintegration and rapid death of algal cells was observed to a higher extent under submerged than air-exposed condition. Under submerged conditions T. aurea did not form any sporangium while prolific formation occurred under air-exposed conditions. Under submerged conditions algal cells formed few-celled, filamentous, cytoplasmic type setae. Vegetative cells were resistant to some extent to various levels of salt (NaCl, < or = 0.8 mol/L), pesticides (DDT, 2,4-D or captan, 2000 ppm) and 'heavy' metals (zinc or nickel, 200 ppm; cobalt, < or = 100 ppm.)