Water
quality and phytoplankton characteristics in the Palk Bay,
southeast coast of India
R. Sridhar, T. Thangaradjou, S. Senthil Kumar and L. Kannan
Centre of Advanced Study in Marine
Biology, Annamalai
University, Parangipettai
- 608 502, India
(Received: 13 January, 2005 ;
Accepted: 23 June, 2006)
Abstract:
The present study was carried out to determine the water quality in
terms of physicochemical characteristics and plankton distribution in the
coastal waters of Kattumavadi, Palk Bay
for a period of one year from April 2002 to March 2003. Air and surface water
temperatures varied from 28?C to 32.50?C and from 27.5 to 32.0?C
while light extinction coefficient (LEC) varied between 0.95 and 1.85. Salinity
ranged from 26.0 to 34.5? and the pH ranged between 7.95 and 8.35. Variation in
dissolved oxygen content was from 4.15 to 7.18 mll-1, and the
particulate organic carbon (POC) content varied between 0.49 and 2.28 mgCl-1.
Concentrations of nutrients viz. nitrate (2.15 to 8.28μM), nitrite (0.12
to 0.62μM), inorganic phosphate (1.28 to 2.15μM) and reactive
silicate (5.15 to 12.52μM) also varied independently. Chlorophyll a content
ranged from 0.28 to 1.48 mg m-3 and the primary productivity, from
4.19 to 16.08 mgCm-3hr-1. The present study recorded a
total of 43 species of planktonic diatoms and two
species of blue-green algae. Population density of phytoplankton varied from
18,000 to 34,000 cells l-1. Percentage composition of the diatoms
showed minimum values during the monsoon season and the maximum values during
the premonsoon season.
Key words: Physicochemical
characteristics, Water quality, Nutrients, Coastal waters, Phytoplankton.
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