Phytoplanktons, also called microalgae, are microscopic photosynthetic living organisms that generally found in aquatic environments. Although they are considered as the most important primary producers and bioindicators of aquatic ecosystems, there was no previous report found for Barishal City about these tiny organisms. Consequently, the present study selected 10 freshwater reservoirs from the city to investigate phytoplankton communities and listed 110 taxa under 4 phyla, 7 classes, 18 orders, 24 families and 49 genera. The distribution of Chlorophytes was abundant relatively in terms of species number (45 taxa) followed by Euglenophytes, Chlorophytes and Cyanophytes in this area. Only Euglenaceae possessed one-third of the total species of this report. Among all stations, the highest number of taxa was recorded from station 2 and according to nine biodiversity indices, the station 2 and 9 showed comparatively good results. All of the recorded taxa were previously mentioned by different authors from Bangladesh.
Impacts of climate change on phytoplankton species are very focusing issues nowadays. This research explored the probable impacts of different pH (pH 5.90 to 9.10) and salinity (0.60 to 3.0 ppt) concentrations on freshwater phytoplankton Chlorella vulgaris, Euglena granulata and Scenedesmus quadricauda. The initial community composition was 4:2:1 for the three taxa, which changed to 6:3:1, 6:2:1, 6:3.5:1 and 9:4:1 in pH 5.90, pH 9.10 and salinity 2.20 and 3.0 ppt respectively. E. granulata showed more tolerance in a wide range of pH (pH 5.90 to 8.30) based on growth rate studies. The other two species showed growth rates reduction gradually in changes with pH and salinity concentrations. Conspicuous changes of total biomass were seen in pH 5.90 and 9.10, and salinity 2.20 and 3.0 ppt conditions. Moreover, significant changes in cell morphology were found in pH 9.10 and 3.0 ppt salinity. The authors concluded that as group, the Chlorophytes were more susceptible than the diatom in these variable pH and salinity conditions, while S. quadricauda was comparatively more vulnerable as a single species.
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