Vol. 12, Special Issue 12 (2023)

Author(s):
RP Mishra, SK Das, TS Nagesh and S Behera

Abstract:
This study was conducted from March 2020 to November 2022 along the Brahmani River. The population of phytoplankton, pH, Temperature, Transparency and DO were investigated based on the samples that were obtained from nine locations. Seasonal fluctuation affects phytoplankton abundance. Present study consists of phytoplankton (Bacillariophyceae) community of Brahmani river in pre-monsoon, monsoon and post-monsoon season. Hydrographical parameters like water temperature, transparency, pH, DO have shown significant seasonal variation in Brahmani river. Water temperature; DO have shown significant variation (p<0.01) among seasons while pH has shown significant variation (p<0.01) among both seasons and stations. Transparency of the water decreased much in monsoon season due to inflow of turbid rain water. But the variation in transparency among seasons and stations were found not to be significant. pH show significant variation among seasons and stations. Phytoplankton density have shown significant variation (p<0.01) among seasons and stations during the study period. During our study, phytoplankton belonging to class Bacillariophyceae dominated over other classes of phytoplanktons at all the 9 stations in the whole year. The numbers of phytoplankton genus under these classes are identified as Bacillariophyceae 21 genus and several species, 7 genus of Chlorophyceae and 3 genus of Myxophyceae. The dominant species recorded at different sampling stations belonged to the genera Coscinodiscus, Skeletonema, Nitzschia, Navicula, Thallasiothrix, Triceratium, Ceratium, Rhizosolenia, Thallasionema, Chaetocerous, Melosira, Trichodesmium, Pleurosigma etc.