Freshwater green algal biofouling of boats in the Kabul River, Pakistan

Abstract

Freshwater green algal biofouling of boats refers to the accrual of freshwater green algae on boats immersed in water. The current research focused on the morphological characteristics of the isolates, species ecology, and the physicochemical properties of the water at the sampling sites. Two localities, Haji Zai and Sardaryab, were sampled at the Kabul River in the district of Charsadda, Pakistan. Freshwater green algae causing biofouling were isolated from the boats. A total of three genera: Cladophora, Rhizoclonium, and Spirogyra with fifteen species belonging to the families Cladophoraceae and Zygnemataceae were observed. Statistical analysis reveals significant stimulation of green algal species in the boats' fouled communities by increases in water temperature, conductivity, and Total Suspended Solids (TSS). The algal growth at the Haji Zai site is suppressed by TDS in autumn (Pearson -0.56) and is stimulated by water temperature in spring (Pearson 0.44). At the Sardaryab site, algae were stimulated in spring by pH of water * Corresponding author: barinova@research.haifa.ac.il (Pearson 0.61), and suppressed by Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) in autumn (Pearson -0.43). Statistical analysis indicates that pH, conductivity, and temperature are the main factors determining the algal biofouling in the Kabul River.

Relationship of pollution with distribution of Mermaid's tresses (Spirogyra) in different localities of river Kabul

“…Spirogyra was also a dominant genus in trems of species recorded by [18][19][20], stated that chlorophyceae is a major class with species, majority of which belong to genus Spirogyra the most common genus, which agree with our findings. Similarly [21][22][23][24], also reported Spirogyra a leading genus with speices which supports our present data. Spirogyra is the most frequent genus of freshwater green algae.…”

Green and Charophyte Algae in Bioindication of Water Quality of the Shah Alam River (District Peshawar, Pakistan)

“…A few scientific articles about its algae had been published (Sarim, 1989a(Sarim, , b, 1991Sarim and Faridi, 1976; Khan and Faridi, 1977;Anjum and Faridi, 1985;Sarim and Ayaz, 2000;Sarim and Zaman, 2005;Anjum et al, 1980Anjum et al, , 1982Faridi et al, 1981;Sarim et al, 2008Sarim et al, , 2011Hussain et al, 1985Hussain et al, , 2009Hussain et al, , 2010Hussain et al, , 2011Hussain et al, , 2012Khuram et al, 2014). This region of Pakistan is very loaded anthropogenically because it has flat territory in the Kabul River basin between high mountains with high capacity for agricultural production.…”

Diversity and Seasonal Dynamics of Chlorophyta Reichenbach, 1828 and Charophyta Migula, 1890 Algae in the Swat River Basin, Pakistan

“…The algal diversity research in the rivers of the southern Hindu Cush region is at its initial stage. In Pakistan, our knowledge of regional algal diversity is far from being exhaustive, whereas the algal communities of some rivers such as the Swat River and Kabul River up to its inflow to the Indus River have been studied better [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. It is very important to reveal the distribution of different algal taxonomic and ecologic groups in the areas like Upper Indus Basin because the biodiversity of algal communities there was formed under natural climatic and anthropogenic impacts.…”