CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Within theframework of the research on high mountain wetlands conducted since 1998, wehave already studied 24 waterbodies in this province. In order to expand ourknowledge on diatom flora in these high mountain environments, in thisopportunity we analyze another 12 wetlands located between 25º34´05"- 27º39´23"S, over 3000 m asl. Diatoms were found in all samples, except in Laguna Azul,with almost white water by the large amount of suspended solids. In relation tosalinity, waters were from fresh to hypersaline, with a predominance of sodiumand chloride ions. We identify, excluding Fragilariaceae, 42 genera with 123infrageneric taxa, 29 of which are new records for the province of Catamarcaand, 4 for Argentina and we propose a new species (Anomoeoneis punae sp nov.).The majority of the species belong to Navicula (17), Nitzschia (13), Halamphora(12), Surirella (8), and Anomoeoneis (7). There were not found species commonto all samples and only six appeared in more than 50% of the waterbodies. A highpercentage (54%) of rare species, found only in one or two of the samples, wasobtained.