Diversity of Fresh water Algal community from Cheruchakkichola, Mangad, Kerala

Abstract

By methodical censoring of biological, physical and chemical characteristics of water bodies and phytoplanktons, have been extensively used as water quality indicators. This study also aims to find out the relationship between phytoplankton population along with some Physicochemical variables. Sampling was performed in 5 sampling sites. Studies on the phytoplankton assemblages in Cheruchakkichola results 53 species belongs to six classes namely Chlorophyceae, Bacillariophyceae, Dinophyceae, Cyanophyceae and Euglenophyceae. Chlorophyceae shows progressive wealth and abundance on the study area. Cyanophyceae and Euglenophyceae were observed to least dominance. According to Nygaard and Palmer index, low supremacy of Cyanophyceae and Euglenophyceae shows that the studied ecosystem should be least organically polluted and suitable for human consumption purposes. This study indicates that biomonitoring methods can give relevant and stable results of water quality and purification assessment that can be employed to monitor the regional water quality.