Seasonal dynamics of phytoplankton community in a tropical wetland

Abstract

Phytoplankton species composition and seasonal changes were investigated in the Bhoj wetland Bhopal. Taxonomic composition, diversity, and abundance of phytoplankton were studied at nine stations from March 2008 to February 2010, in relation to various physico-chemical factors. Total phytoplankton species composition in the Bhoj wetland was represented by 360 species. Among phytoplankton, diversity belonged to seven groups. Chlorophyceae was the dominant group (48%) followed by Bacillariophyceae (26%), Cyanophyceae (15%), and Euglenophyceae (9%), while Pyrophyceae, Chrysophyceae, and Xanthophyceae contributed 2% of the population. Phytoplankton on the basis of seasonal studies recorded 1651 units l(-1) during summer season which was contributed mainly by Chlorophyceae (39.3%), with Spirogyra sp. (14.2%) and Closteriopsis sp. (9.1%) contributing maximum to the total group in the first year, while during the second year of summer period, a total of 2095 units l(-1) was recorded which was contributed mainly by group Pyrophyceae (51%) with the main dominant species represented by Ceratium hirundinella (98.46%). The highest Shannon-Wiener diversity index (H') value (4.27) was recorded. Simpson values are approaching 1, signifying that sites have high relative diversity due to its supporting surrounding components. The trend of variation in evenness values was more or less the same as Shannon diversity index. Thus, the highest diversity indices recoded at all the stations in the present study justify the diverse nature of species inhabiting the different ecological niches in the ecosystem. The very high phosphate and nitrate concentrations in the wetland are indicators of pollution which may be due to the discharge of agricultural and sewage wastes enriched with nutrients as well as the human activities there. Our recommendation is to avoid as far as possible the discharge of sewage and agriculture wastes into the Bhoj wetland. The effects of various physicochemical water quality parameters on the seasonal distribution and succession of the above mentioned phytoplankton population as well as the interaction and eutrophication are discussed.

Assessment of seasonal variation in physico-chemical characteristics of a lentic waterbody of Bhopal, India

“…2g). Similar trend has been obtained by Bhat et al, (2015) [6] in Bhoj wetland of Bhopal. The concentration of chloride in Lower lake was quite high and fluctuated between 29 mg/l in winter and 58 mg/l in summer (Fig.…”

“…2d). Near neutral pH has also been observed by Wanganeo and Ishaq, (2011) [34] and Ahmad and Wanganeo, (2015) [6] in Bhoj wetland of Bhopal. Furthermore, alkaline nature of the water reveals productive nature of the waterbody.…”

Plankton Diversity in Tropical Wetlands Under Different Hydrological Conditions (Lake Tana, Ethiopia)

“…However, the 85 phytoplankton taxa found was higher than the 36 phytoplankton species in the wetlands of India's Sundarbans wetlands (Gogoi et al, 2019), 53 species in India's Chatla wetlands (Laskar and Gupta, 2013), and 36 species in Diyawannawa wetland of Sri Lanka (Wijeyaratne and Nanayakkara, 2020). However, the regional phytoplankton taxa richness in our wetlands was lower than the 360 phytoplankton species in the Bhoj wetland of India (Bhat et al, 2015), 97 species in of Pantanal wetland of South America (Cardoso et al, 2012), and 200 species in Danube Riverine wetlands of Austria (Chaparro et al, 2018). Similarly, the regional taxon richness of zooplankton in our study was higher than the 32 species reported from the wetland of Opa Reservoir (Adebayo et al, 2021), but lower than the 128 species reported from the Yangtze River floodplain (Lu et al, 2021).…”

“…Consequently, plankton communities comprise a huge diversity of life-history traits that vary in response to the environmental conditions in the wetland. These range from small fast-growing phytoplankton taxa adapted to turbulent waters to large slow-growing organisms adapted to more stable conditions (Reynolds, 2002;Padisák et al, 2009;Bhat et al, 2015), and from pelagic filter-feeding to scraping zooplankton taxa associated with vegetation (Gebrehiwot et al, 2017a).…”

Phytoplankton nutrient dynamics and flow cytometry based population study of a eutrophic wetland habitat in eastern India, a Ramsar site

“…29 Some noteworthy works on the nutrient dynamics study related to phytoplankton productivity from fresh water wetlands are available. 11,13,30 In India wetlands are economically important and are mainly used for sh cultivation; moreover, they have distinct architecture, resulting in extensive purication of waste waters. 31 Pradhan et al, 32 suggested that phytoplankton growth could be an important factor for greater sh production and could also act as a biomonitor for water quality assessment in the wetland ecosystems.…”