Journal of Environmental Biology

Impact of water quality on phytoplankton community and

biomass in Dhamara estuary east coast of India

Subrat Naik¹, R.K. Mishra^3*, Debasish Mahapatro² and R.C. Panigrahy¹

¹Department of Marine Sciences, Berhampur University, Bhanjabihar-760 007, India

²Wetland Research and Training Center, Chilika Development Authority, Bhubaneswar-751 014, India?

³National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research, Headlanda Sada, Goa-403 804, India

*Corresponding Author E-mail: rajanimishra@yahoo.com

Publication Data

Paper received:

28 August 2012

Revised received:

18 January 2013

Accepted:

03 June 2013

Abstract

Distribution of phytoplankton, productivity and chlorophyll-a concentration in relation to physico-chemical parameters viz. water temperature, pH, total suspended solid, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, biochemical oxygen demand, salinity and nutrients (NO₂-N, NO₃-N, PO₄-P and SiO₄-Si) were studied for pre-monsoon, monsoon and post-monsoon during the year 2005. The major groups of phytoplankton species were diatoms followed by dinoflagellates and other algae. A total of 43 species of phytoplankton comprising 32 diatoms, 6 dinoflagellates and 5 other algae were recorded during the entire study period. The species Nitzschia, Chaetoceros and Coscinodiscus were identified as dominant diatoms group. Higher values of phytoplankton (28612 nos l^-1) with high rate of photosynthesis were observed during post-monsoon season, which was responsible for increasing DO (8.72 mg l^-1) and pH(8.24) of the water column. R-mode factor analysis revealed that there were two factors or PCs that explained 93.0%, 95.2% and 94.4% of the total variance for pre-monsoon, monsoon and post-monsoon respectively. Generally, the? trend distribution of phytoplankton closely followed the distribution of salinity, pH and DO of estuarine water.

 Key words

Chlorophyll-a, Dhamara estuary, Phytoplankton abundance, Water quality 

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