Ecology of Biofouling Phytoplankton in Chinnamuttom Harbour Waters Southeast Coast of India

Abstract

Phytoplankton are the primary source of food, attributed most zooplankton communities and larval stages, and many meroplankton such as bivalves, crustaceans, and fishes. In the present study, phytoplankton samples were collected from surface water and substratum of the ship hull during the period of June 2015 to May 2016. Population density recorded from water and substratum of the ship hull ranged from 1.5e+4 to 3.4e+4 cells/L. Shannon-Wiener diversity index (H‛) of station I and station II ranged from 5.448 to 6.134 bits/ind. Simpson’s richness range was 0.973 to 0.984 at station I and station II. Pielou’s Evenness index (J’) was found to be from 0.950 to 0.979 and Chlorophyll ‘a’ range was 0.277 to 1.326 mg/m3 in the station I and station II. During this entire study period, 74 species of phytoplankton and 54 species of phytoplankton in station II have been recorded. Data of the present study show that significant differences occurred in over all percentage composition of phyhtoplankton species, both in in water and substratum. In water samples, recorded data showed that 85% were of Bacillariophyceae, 8 % of Chlorophyceae and, 7% of Dinophyceae. On the other hand, 75 % Bacillariophyceae, 7 % Chlorophyceae, 16% Dinophyceae and 2% Cyanophyceae were recorded in the substratum. The marine biofouling phytoplankton density, diversity, richness, evenness and chlorophyll’a’ were recorded in their maximum levels during summer season, and minimum were obtained in the monsoon. The diatoms were the predominant groups among the phytoplankton. Among the diatoms, species like Nitzschia longissima, Coscinodiscus centralis and Fragilaria sp. were record almost in all the seasons in the present study.