Advanced Study on a Contribution to the Epipelic Algal Ecology in Lotic Ecosystem of Iraq

Abstract

The study was conducted on epipleic diatoms in a lotic ecosystem. The Al-Shamiyah River was se- lected which is a distance from industrial activities. Four sites along the river were selected for sampling during the period from March 2013 to February 2014. A total of 173 species of epipelic diatoms were identified. The pennate diatoms predominated and represented about 92.49% of the total diatoms, while centric diatoms formed only 7.51%. The total number of diatoms ranged between 185.1 - 422.34 cell × 10 4 /cm 2 . Some of the pennate diatom species were Achnanthes af- finis Grunow , Achnanthes mintussima Kuetzing, Cocconeis placentula var. euglypta (Ehr.) Cleve, Cymbella affinis Kuetzing, Diatoma vulgare Bory, Fragilaria capucina Desmazieres , Gomphonema angustatum var. productu Grun., Navicula lanceolata (Ag.) Kuetzing, Navicula radiosa Kuetzing, Navicula viridula Kuetzing, Nitzschia palea (Kutz.) W. Smith, Nitzschia romana Grunow. The phys- icochemical and epipelic algae species indicated that the water quality of the river was clean to moderate water quality.