Checklist of phytoplankton of the foot hill belt of Arunachal Himalayas

Abstract

Based on a yearlong random floristic survey on various locations, a checklist of the phytoplankton flora in the foot hill belt of Arunachal Himalayas was compiled. The current list contains 116 phytoplankton taxa representing 6 algal phyla, 35 families and 55 genera which were more than the results of all previous survey. With 34 taxa, Chlorophyta was the richest phylum followed by Charophyta (31), Bacillariophyta (27), Euglenozoa (14), Cyanobacteria (6) and Ochrophyta (4) respectively. Among the families, Desmidiaceae was the most species rich one with 19 species. Closterium and Cosmarium were the dominant genera with 11 species each. A total of 90 phytoplankton species were reported for the first time from foot hill belt of Arunachal Himalayas.