Phytoplankton community structure in relation to physico-chemical factors in a tropical soda lake, Lake Shala (Ethiopia)

Comparative study of algal community in African sharptooth catfish (Clarias gariepinus, Burchell 1822) and Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus, Linnaeus 1758) farming ponds

“…This period of dry season always registers the highest algal abundance in tropical water bodies. Indeed, a study conducted in a tropical soda lake in Ethiopia showed seasonal variations in phytoplankton abundance and biomass with a peak abundance observed during dry periods (Wagaw et al., 2021). Therefore, these findings suggest that in fish farming ponds and decantation pond, algal biomass during the rainy season will be less, compared to the dry season where the study was conducted.…”

Atelomix in Ethiopian Highland Lakes: their role in phytoplankton dynamics and ecological features

“…Phytoplankton as one component of an aquatic ecosystem play keys ecological roles in the ecosystem: (1) maintaining the balance of the ecosystem and its complex food webs (Vallina et al, 2017) as their species diversity, biomass and production determine the strength of the energy transfer (Degerman et al, 2018;Ghedini et al, 2021) and they are autotrophic organisms and usually found in aquatic ecosystems serving as the base food sources for most aquatic organisms like zooplankton, fishes and crustaceans (Manickam et al, 2020;Tharik et al, 2021), (2) they play a very vital role in controlling the carbon level in the atmosphere and generate about half the atmospheric oxygen through the process of photosynthesis (Basu & Mackey, 2018;Käse & Geuer, 2018) and (3) are very good biological indicator to understand the water quality and they also respond to other physiological indicators like pH, oxygen, salinity, temperature, light and toxic chemicals (Manickam et al, 2020). Therefore, their distribution is mostly explained as a response to a complex of environmental factors operating at various scales of different biotic and abiotic factors (Wagaw et al, 2021). The effects of seasonality and nutrient availabilities (Tessema et al, 2020), underwater light conditions and phytoplankton buoyancy characteristics (Degefu et al, 2014) wind and temperature regime (Degefu & Schagerl, 2015), food availability and trophic conditions (Fetahi et al, 2014) have all been revealed as key driving factors for heterogeneity of phytoplankton composition and biomass in Ethiopian highland lakes.…”