Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

Vol. 19 Issue 03, 2013; Page No.(793-800)

PLANKTONIC INDICATORS: A PROMISING TOOL FOR MONITORING WATER QUALITY (EARLY-WARNING SIGNALS)

Uday Bhan Singh, A.S. Ahluwalia, C. Sharma, R. Jindal and R.K. Thakur

Abstract

Bio-indicators have provided valuable information for water resource management in recent years and have enjoyed increasing popularity. All species (or species assemblages) tolerate a limited range of chemical, physical, and biological conditions, which we can use to evaluate environmental quality. Planktons that respond rapidly to environmental change have been very useful and with the identification of particular indicator species being widely used in assessing water quality. Planktons serve as early-warning signals that reflect the ‘health’ status of an aquatic system. Overall routine monitoring of biological communities is reliable and relatively inexpensive compared to the cost of assessing toxicant pollutants. Another benefit of the use of bioindicators is their ability to indicate indirect biotic effects of pollutants when many physical or chemical measurements cannot. The results showed that organisms like Microcystis sp., Stigeoclonium sp., Chlamydomonas sp., Oscillatoria sp., Frafellaria sp., Navicula cryptocephala, Chlorella vulgaris, Euglena sp., Closterium sp., Ankistrodesmus falcatus, Anabaena sp., Gomphonema sp., Nitzschia palea, Synedra ulna, Pandorina sp., Scenedesmus sp., and Phacus caudate among phytoplanktons and zooplanktons forms like Brachionus sp., Keratella cochlearis, Moina sp., Daphnia sp., Bosmina sp., Cyclops sp., Mesocyclopes sp., larvae of Chironomus sp., Oxytricha sp., Eristalis tenax, and Epistylis sp. were tolerant to water pollution. The present paper emphasizes some recent research on planktons with their possibilities and potential for utilization as bioindicators of water quality.

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