International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 5, Issue 4, April 2014

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Assessment of Plankton Diversity of Mahanadi

River at Jobra and Sikharpur, Cuttack

Ms. Stutipragya Pradhan, Dr. Lipika Patnaik*, Dr. Dipti Raut, Mr. Sambit Swain

Environmental Science Laboratory, PG Department of Zoology, Ravenshaw University, Cuttack (Odisha)

*Corresponding Author Email: lipika_pat@yahoo.co.uk

Abstract—The present study was carried out in Environmental Science laboratory of Zoology Department of Ravenshaw University, Cuttack from Jan-July 2013. The work carried out is an attempt to study the status of largest Eastern belt River Mahanadi with the help of planktons.Basic water quality parameters like pH, Dissolved oxygen, Carbon dioxide, Total Hardness, Phosphate and Orthophosphate were determined as per Standard methods APHA.Arthropodan zooplanktons were observed and recorded from both the Stations followed by Rotifers.Phytoplanktons belonging to Bacillariophyta dominated Jobra and Sikharpur waters and many Chlorophyta have been recorded at both the Stations.

Index Terms- Zooplanktons, Phytoplanktons, Jobra, Sikharpur

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1 INTRODUCTION

Planktons (“planao” means to wander) are minute floating organisms, usually found in surface water. They are broadly divided into phytoplankton (plants category) and zooplankton (animal catego- ry). Zooplanktons are distinguished from phytop- lankton on the basis of morphology and mode of nutrition. Phytoplankton contain chlorophyll for synthesis of food where as zooplanktons cannot directly convert solar energy to chemical energy. Freshwater zooplanktons are used as bioindicators. Zooplanktons are important components of aqua- tic ecosystem and function as primary and second- ary links in the food chain. They act as grazers and as food source for other invertebrates and fish.

Lipika Patnaik is Associate Professor in PG Department of

Zoology, Ravenshaw university, Cuttack(Odisha)

Dipti Raut is Assistant Professor in PG department of Zool- ogy, Ravenshaw university, Cuttack (Odisha)

Stutipragnya Pradhan was pursuing Mphil in Zoology, Ra- venshaw university (Odisha)

Mr. Sambit Swain is a Project fellow in Zoology Department

They also help in regulating the population of phy- toplankton by feeding on them.

2 STUDY AREA

This study was carried out at two different loca-

tions around the city from the month of January

2013 to July, 2013. The field of study was Jobra

(station 1), Sikharpur (station 2).

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Plate 1 Jobra Sampling Station

3 MATERIALS AND METHOD

Samplings were done during day time between 10 am to 2 pm. The planktons were collected with the help of plankton net by putting the net directly into the surface water. Planktons were also collected from the river with the help of a bucket with inversion of water filled bucket into the plankton net. The samples were transferred into the collection tubes and 4% formalin (2ml formalin per 10ml sample) was added to the collected sample for preservation.. After preservation
8 to 10 drops of Rose bengal stain was added to the sample (10ml of sample) bottles. DPX was used for preparing permanent slides and the prepared slides were observed under compound microscope at mag- nification of 10x and 40x. The water samples collected separately was examined in the laboratory to check

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the physico-chemical parameters like dissolved oxy-
gen, free carbon dioxide, total phosphate, total hard- ness, calcium and orthophosphate content. Water
quality tests were conducted as per Standard me-
thods APHA.

4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION-

Table. 1 Water quality indices

Table.2 Total population of different phylum at different stations

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Table 3.Population and distribution of zooplankton species at St-1, St-2 during premonsoon and monsoon season.


Fig. 1 Distribution of Zooplanktons Fig.2 Distribution of Phytoplanktons

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spirogyra

VOLVOX

Plate 2.1Volvox

Plate 2.2Spirogyra

Botryococcus sp.

Plate 2.3Cylindrospermum Plate 2.4Botryococcus

Actinas trum

l i

Fragilaria

Plate 2.5Fragilaria Plate 2.6 Actinastrum

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Plate 2.7 Nematode

Plate 2.9Brachionus sp.

Plate 2.11Crab zoea larva

2.8Heliodiaptomus sp.

Plate 2.10Lecane sp.

Plate 2.12 Cyclopoid

Plate

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Present investigation has confirmed presence of spe-
cies like Spirogyra, Nauplius larva, Synedra, Navicula, Phormidium, Oscillatoria at Jobra and Sikharpur. Pres- ence of mixed planktons indicates that the pollution load of River Mahanadi is moderate to high during summers and the load decreases in the rainy season due to dilution. The zooplankton community of the river is composed of helminth larva, cladocera and copepod. Concentration of helminth larva is more during rainy season due to runoff of faecal matter from residential area into the river. Cladocerans have also been reported from River Mahanadi and they prefer to reside in clean waters. Similar work has been reported by Goswami et al (2012) on Zoop- lankton of Fresh Water Reservoir Nyari – II Rajkot district, Gujarat, India and observed that the zoop- lankton were represented by various phyla like, pro- tozoa, helminthes, rotifera, annelida, arthropoda etc.
Arthropods have been reported maximum in num-
ber of varieties and percentage amount in the total zooplankton followed by Rotifer in general. Plank- ton population depends on chemistry of water, tem- perature and amount of suspended matter.The re- sults reflected in the present investigation is sup- ported by similar results with regard to Rotifer pop- ulation abundance in the non polluted region than in polluted region in tropical ponds of Srilanka(Patrick et al., 2012). Mathivanan et al., (2007) carried out research work on plankton population with refer- ence to pollution on Cauvery river water, Salem dis- trict, Tamil Nadu Uncontrolled domestic wastewater and sewage discharge into the water body can result in the eutrophication as evidenced by substantial algal blooms and dissolved oxygen depletion in Riv- er Mahanadi.

5. REFERENCES

APHA, (1992 and 1998). Standard methods for the examina-

th

tion of water and waste water, AWWA and WPCF, 20

tion.

edi-

Goswami, A.P., Mankodi, P.C.(2012). Study on Zooplankton of Fresh Water Reservoir Nyari – II Rajkot district,Gujarat, India. ISCA J. Biological Sci.Vol. 1(1), 30-34

Patrick, A.E., Kadotgasan, J.M., Naveendrakumar, G.(2012).Study to detect impacts of pollution on the distribu- tion of Zooplankton in the Northern tropical ponds in Sri Lan- ka.Scholars Research Library.Archives of Applied Science Research, 4 (6):2552-2556

Mathivanan, V., Vijayan, P., Sabhanarayaham, S. and Jeyachitra, O.(2007).An assessment of phytoplankton population of Cauvery river with reference to pollution, India, Journal of enviromental biology, 28(2): 523-526

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