Algae as Bio-monitors for Damodar River Water Pollution

Abstract

Damodar is an important tributary of Ganga river basin and cater the needs of industries and growing human population in the eastern part of India. Assessment of algal diversity was carried out to understand the impact of coal mining and allied industrial activities on the ecological condition of Damodar river basin. Surface water and algal samples were collected in the summer (2009) from ten sites along the Damodar River. Bio-monitoring of algal diversity showed high organic pollution load in the Damodar River. These observations were confirmed by statistical analysis. Algal community analysis and multivariate analysis showed influence of organic pollution in the river. Cluster analysis (CA) identified the similarity and dissimilarity among sampling sites and discriminate the reference site from rest of the impacted sites in the Damodar river basin.

Phytoplankton as biomonitors: A study of Museum Lake in Government Botanical Garden and Museum, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala India

“…Because biological communities integrate the environmental effects of water chemistry, in addition to the physical and geomorphological characteristics of lakes and rivers (Stevenson & Pan ; Dora et al . ), biomonitoring represents a valuable tool that is receiving increased use in water quality assessment studies. Biological indicators comprise species used to monitor or assess the health and environmental integrity of an ecosystem.…”