Water Quality and Plankton Assessment of Eme River, Umuahia, Southeast Nigeria

Abstract

Certain anthropogenic activities have negative impacts on the aquatic ecosystems. Plankton are sensitive to their environment and are used to monitor anthropogenic impacts. A South-eastern Nigeria River was studied from December 2017 to November 2018 in 6 stations; to assess the plankton community, water quality and anthropogenic impacts. The river was subjected to intense sand mining activities among other activities. The plankton was sampled with filtration method while water was collected and analysed using standard methods. A total of 36 phytoplankton species and 27 zooplankton species were recorded with Chlorophyceae and Rotifers being the most abundant groups. The most abundant species - Melosira granulata (phytoplankton) and Daphnia pulex (zooplankton) are pollution indicators. Some of the physicochemical parameters showed that the river was perturbed by the anthropogenic activities in the watershed. However, the plankton assemblage and community structure gave an indication of a stable environment; though the zooplankton fauna showed some level of stress. The impacts of sand mining activities on water quality and plankton were more in the downstream stations (4–6) where sand mining was intense while perturbation from swimming children and related activities were observed in station 1 especially during the dry season. The presence of eutrophic indicators and tolerant species showed that the river was tending towards eutrophication. Sand mining activities contributed to the nutrient enrichment of the river. CCA showed the major water quality parameters that influenced the plankton community structure. There is need to regulate illegal sand mining activities in the river.

Limnological properties and phytoplankton as indicator of pollution, Choba segment, New Calabar River, Port Harcourt Nigeria

“…The observed pH range is though acidic but still within the acceptable range (6.0 and 9.0) required for culturing tropical fish species though may not tolerate a sudden change within the range as opined by ( 26) and ( 27). This result is contrary to the range (4.3 -6.3) reported by (28) in Eme river South East Nigeria. This pH is contrary to the acidic to alkaline condition (5.80-8.20) reported by 29) from selected fish ponds at Sunyani, Ghana which was attributed to high rate of decomposition of organic matter in the water.…”

“…The dominance of phytoplankton by the bacillariophyceae in this study is contrary to the finding of (51) who opined that high relative abundance of cyanophyceae (blue-green algae) and its presence either in colonial or filamentous form may be indicative of the influence of organic pollution of the water body. (28) observed Melosira granulata and Planktosphaeria gelatinosa which is contrary to the Cyclotella combta and Cyclotella granulate dominating in this study. The observed composition of phytoplankton dominated by cosmopolitan and pollution tolerant species such as Navicula sigma, Cyclotella combta, Cyclotella of opercullata, Spirogyra species, Anabaena affinis, Anabaena flusaqua Microcystis pulvenca and Oscullaria lacustris is an indication that the New Calabar River is eutrophic /polluted.…”

Assessing the Water Quality of Akwa Ibom State North-West District, Nigeria, using Water Quality Indices and Palmer Pollution Index

“…In the general population, the class Bacillariophyceae constituted the highest percentage The abundance of phytoplankton species in this study is influenced by physicochemical and anthropogenic perturbation of the water body. The five classes encountered in this study almost corroborate with the reports of Singh and Sharma (2018) and Anyanwu et al (2021) for Eme River. The higher percentage composition for Bacillariophyceae is in concurrence with the findings of many authors in respect to phytoplankton distribution (Singh, Sharma, 2018;Jonah et al, 2020b;George et al, 2021) and contradicts with the findings of Anyanwu et al (2021) who recorded Chlorophyceae as the most dominant group.…”

“…The five classes encountered in this study almost corroborate with the reports of Singh and Sharma (2018) and Anyanwu et al (2021) for Eme River. The higher percentage composition for Bacillariophyceae is in concurrence with the findings of many authors in respect to phytoplankton distribution (Singh, Sharma, 2018;Jonah et al, 2020b;George et al, 2021) and contradicts with the findings of Anyanwu et al (2021) who recorded Chlorophyceae as the most dominant group. Moruff et al (2016) reported Cyanophyceae to be dominant in Upper Jebba Basin.…”