The Balikhli Chay is a permanent river in Ardabil Province, Iran. It originates from the Bozgoosh and Sabalan elevations in Northwest Iran. The water catchment area of the Balikhli River (Balikhli Chay) is over 1600 km 2 . Twenty-five kilometers to the southwest of the city of Ardabil, the Yamchi dam has been constructed on the river. The Yamchi reservoir serves as the main source for drinking and irrigation purposes. Several important

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Springs are highly important habitats for biodiversity trend. Hence three springs in Golestan Province were selected for floristic study of diatom assemblages. Samples were collected seasonally from stony and sediment substrates. In total, 75 taxa belong to 38 genera were identified. Gomphonema and Nitzschia each with 7 species, Navicula with 6 species, Surirella with 5 species and Cymbella with 4 species were the most species-rich genera. Results revealed that Gol-e-Ramian Spring with 61 taxa had the highest species richness. Achnanthidium minutissimum,Cocconeis placentula, Fragilaria crotonensis, Gomphonema micropus, Meridion circulare, Nitzschia vermicularis, and Planothidium frequentissimum were the most abundant taxa. Most of the species identified in the present research have been observed within running water environments in Golestan province and other parts of Iran. Our study improved knowledge about thediatom communities of springs in Golestan province.

Algae are the most important group of organisms which considerably affect the water quality. Although algae constitute one of the fundamental parts of the aquatic food chains, only few researches deal with the freshwater algae of Iran. Filamentous algae are important components of the river vegetation. The Balikhlou River is utilized as a source to obtain drinking water for the city of Ardabil, therefore, the algae flora of this river was studied and a total number of 18 taxa of filamentous algae were determined, of which nine species were belonged to the Cyanophyceae class of Cyanobacteriae, while five speciesof which were belonged to the Chlorophyta. In addition, four species were recorded for the first time from Iran, i.e., Audouinella eugenea, Arthrospira gigantea, Homoeothrix janthina and Tychonema bourrellyi.

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