Through the kindness of Dr. Yosio KOBAYASI of the National Science Museum of Tokyo, the author had an opportunity to study the soil algal materials of the Arctic Alaska, Canada and Greenland collected by the members of the Japanese Microbiological Expedition to the Arctic region in the summer of 1968.
The algae of the Arctic region were hitherto reported by many authors, chiefly R. BOLDT, O. BORGE, F. BORGESEN, A. CLEVE, F. HUSTEDT, E. KOL, G. KRASKE, O. NORDSTEDT, E. OSTRUP, J. B. PETERSEN and others (cited from HIRANO, 1965). Recently, G. W. PRESCOTT and W. C. VlNYARD (1965) published an ecological study and detailed systematic list of algae especially on Cyanophyta, Chlorophyta, Euglenophyta, Chrysophyta and Pyrrhophyta. And also H. CROASDALE (1958, 1962, 1965) and H. CROASDALE and R. GRONBLAD (1964) reported especially on the desmids flora of this region. On the European Arctic algal flora, J. KRISTIANSEN (1964) described especially of some Flagellates from Finnish Lapland. In 1965 and also in 1968, the Japanese Microbiological Expedition to the Arctic region was carried out under the direction of Dr. Yosio KOBAYASI. Subsequently, in 1967, 1968, several reports concerning to the first Japanese Microbiological Expedition to the Alaskan Arctic in 1965 have been issued by following authors viz. M. CHIHARA (marine algae), T. YAMAGISHI (filamentous Chlorophyceae), Y. KOBAYASI (cryophytic algae and Prasiola species), K. MARUYAMA (Cyanophyceae), H. FUKUSHIMA and et. al. (diatoms) and M. HIRANO (desmids). Most of these reports are, however, chiefly contributed to the knowledge of the freshwater algae rather than the soil algae of this region.
Hereby, the author deals with some ecological notes and taxonomic list of the soil algae of the Arctic Alaska, Canada and Greenland.
Greatest thanks are due to Dr. Yosio KOBAYASI of National Science Museum of Tokyo who kindly afforded an opportunity for the studying on the materials.
Cordial thanks are also due to Professor Emertius Yukio YAMADA of Hokkaido University and Professor Hiroyuki HIROSE of Kobe University for their kind criticism and encouragement.