Seasonal distribution of phytoplankton and its association with physico-chemical parameters in coastal waters of Malvan, west coast of India

Abstract

Malvan coast is one of the Marine Protected Area (MPA) of Maharashtra because of its rich coral reef and biodiversity. The study investigated on phytoplankton assemblage and their diversity with respect to physico-chemical parameters covering protected and unprotected area of Malvan coast. Physico-chemical parameters such as salinity, nitrite, nitrate, and ammonia did not display seasonality due to inadequate fresh water influx and allochthonous nutrient input. Positive correlation of phosphate (r = 0.96, p < 0.0001) and silicate (r = 0.91, p < 0.0001) with Total Suspended Solids (TSS) confirmed their autochthonous origin as a result of resuspension of bottom sediments during monsoon. A total of 57 phytoplankton species were identified mostly dominated by Bascillariophyceae (40 species), followed by Dinophyceae (9 species), Chlorophyceae (5 species), Cyanophyceae (2 species), and Dictyochophyceae (1 species) from Malvan coast. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) revealed that water temperature and TSS were the most significant parameters influencing the distribution and seasonal shift in phytoplankton species such as Skeletonema costatum and Chaetoceros sp. during pre-monsoon and Psedo-nitzschia sp., Streptotheca thamensis, Eucampia zodiacus, and Lithodesmium undulatum during post-monsoon. Silicate and phosphate had minor influence on phytoplankton distribution. Shannon-Wiener diversity index as a pollution index suggested that the study area was incipiently polluted except at bay stations. Despite of various human interventions the water quality and phytoplankton assemblage of this area has not reached to an alarming situation. The current study provides a valuable baseline data on phytoplankton assemblage from Malvan coast.

Seasonal distribution and population dynamics of limnic microalgae and their association with physico-chemical parameters of river Noyyal through multivariate statistical analysis

“…Our results were corroborated with Haridkar et al . 34 findings, where they revealed that phytoplankton species distribution in Malvan Coast with seasonal shift was influenced by their significant fluctuation in physico-chemical parameters.…”

Seasonal Succession of Phytoplankton Functional Groups and Driving Factors of Cyanobacterial Blooms in a Subtropical Reservoir in South China

“…Generally, the mechanisms regulating the changes in phytoplankton communities are complex [44,45]. For example, the nutrient resources of aquatic ecosystems strongly affect ecosystem diversity [46]. Species are season-specific, which is a basic manifestation of phytoplankton adaptations to natural environments [10,47].…”

Major threats of pollution and climate change to global coastal ecosystems and enhanced management for sustainability

“…The most commonly applied method for the estimation of biomass is using different sizes of transect quadrate, which will calculate the amount of phytoplankton, zooplankton, plants and animals in coastal marine ecosystems (Cushing, 1958;Strickland and Parsons, 1972;McKenzie, 2003;Gross et al, 2014;Alcaraz et al, 2016;Borja et al, 2016). Diversity of coastal marine ecosystems is indicated by Pearson's correlation matrix, Shannon-Wiener diversity index and Pielou evenness (Hardikar et al, 2017). Human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP) is a useful index to estimate the human impacts on the coastal marine ecosystems, which takes the biomass index of phytoplankton, zooplankton, seagrass, fish, crabs, squids and mollusks together (Sjafrie et al, 2017).…”