The first microalgae inventory of the Sevastopol Bay and neighboring the Black Sea coastal waters dates back to 1886 and includes 16 species. In 1948, Morozova-Vodyanitskaya published the first retrospective analysis of the Black Sea phytoplankton, which included 90 species of dinoflagellates of the Sevastopol area. In the following decades, such studies were sustained by IBSS scientists and during the last twenty five years Sevastopol Bay and adjacent coastal waters monitoring became regular. Recently, the most comprehensive list of dinoflagellates of the Sevastopol Bay included 87 species and was based on the research of Senicheva in 1983–2006. For the same area the observations of Manzhos in 2001–2002 and 2006–2007 resulted in a list of dinoflagellates with 60 and 54 taxons correspondingly, (including those which were identified at species level). In 2008–2014, during the monthly ecological monitoring of Sevastopol coastal waters, performed by the Biophysical Ecology Department of the IBSS NASU, 86 dinoflagellate taxa were identified (74 species and additionally 12 taxa to genus level and above). They belong to 28 genera, 18 families, 7 orders and 2 classes. In terms of species number, dominating genera were: Protoperidinium Berg. (14), Dinophysis Ehrenb., Gymnodinium F. Stein, Prorocentrum Ehrenb. (each represented by 7 species) and Gonyaulax Diesing – 6 species. Out of the total number (74), 20 species are bioluminescent and most of them belong to genus Protoperidinium. In this paper we present a comparative analysis of historical and modern data and a first comprehensive check list of dinoflagellate species of the Sevastopol coastal area, based on a compilation of personal species identifications and results of all previous studies in these waters. Our list consists of 66 synonyms, 156 valid species and infraspecific taxa related to 49 genera, 29 families, 11 orders and 3 classes. Over the entire period under review (1886–2014) 26 bioluminescent species have been reported. After more than a century of phytoplankton research in the Sevastopol coastal area (the Black Sea), significant differences were found both in a number of species and in species composition enlisted in different sources, which required clarification and update of species names in line with modern taxonomy so that to correctly assess the phytoplankton diversity in the area of interest.

Keywords: Black Sea, dinoflagellates, Sevastopol coastal zone, species composition

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