Skip to content
Research Article Open access CC BY 4.0

A Study of Phytoplankton and Zooplankton Diversity in the River Sabarmati, Gujarat, India

Krishnakumar B. Vaghela, Devangee P. Shukla, Nayan K. Jain

Asian Journal of Environment & Ecology · pp. 28–38 · Published 15 Nov 2023

10.9734/ajee/2023/v22i4505

Abstract

Abiotic and biotic components are divided into two categories to describe the structural ecosystem. Aquatic plants and animals can find a suitable habitat in the river's water body. Planktons are an important component of the wetland ecology and may serve as a marker of altering water quality. Zooplankton mostly obtains its nutrition from phytoplankton, an ecosystem producer. Most fish larvae and other plankton-eating fishes feed primarily on zooplankton species. All aquatic ecosystems' dynamics revolve around primary productivity, which sustains various food chains and food webs. The overgrowth of macrophytes, pesticides from agricultural runoff, household garbage, sewage sludge, feces near rivers, bathing of domestic animals, washing of clothing and utensils, etc. have all put pressure on river ecosystems over the past many years. Most plants and animals struggle to survive in polluted environments, but those that can handle the stress of pollution on their own may be able to. These creatures can serve as pollution indicators, or more particularly, as bioindicators of the ecosystem's trophic condition. In this article, Sabarmati River's phytoplankton and zooplankton communities were evaluated at six different locations. The current investigations were researched from January 2017 to December 2019 over a period of around 3 years.  Several published plankton manuals were used for plankton collection and identification. Aquatic flora analyzed here in two respects i.e., phytoplankton and aquatic vegetation or aquatic weeds. Phytoplankton were represented by four groups, viz. Bacilariophyceae, Chlorophyceae, Cyanophyceae, and Euglenophyceae. Diversity study reveals common planktonic forms present at different sites of sampling. In general, aquatic weeds like Hydrilla, Valesneria, Chara, Nymphea, Pistia, Typha etc. were commonly found in the study area. Protozoa, Cladocera, Copepoda and Rotifers are the main groups of zooplankton found in freshwater bodies. Six Molluscans and sixteen Arthropods were identified to be the most commonly occurring riparian fauna. The annual values of all zooplankton showed greater densities at site-1 and site-6 followed by other sites, respectively. When the data were analyzed for contribution of each phylum to the overall zooplankton densities, it was dominated by Protozoa and Arthropods throughout the study period. This was followed by Rotifera, Annelid and Nematoda, respectively. The percentile composition of protozoan fauna at six study sites suggested that on more than half of the sampling occasions their major contribution was recorded at sites 1, 2 and 6  followed by sites 5, 4 and 3, respectively.

River Sabarmati ecosystem phytoplankton zooplankton biodiversity study species density pollution indicator

References (18)

  1. 1 The influence of plant litter diversity on decomposer abundance and diversity [DOI]
  2. 2 Phytoplankton assemblages across the marine to low-salinity transition zone in a blackwater dominated estuary [DOI]
  3. 3 Seasonal Variations in Physico-Chemical Characterstics of Tapi Estuary in Hazira Industrial Area [DOI]
  4. 4 Status of plankton diversity and biological productivity of Sahastradhara stream at Uttarakhand, India [DOI]
  5. 5 Feeding Studies on Selected Zooplankton in a Temperate Estuary, South Africa [DOI]
  6. 6 Assessment of phytoplankton density in relation to environmental variables in Gopalaswamy pond at Chitradurga, Karnataka.
  7. 7 A survey of zooplankton diversity of Challawa river, Kano and evaluation of some of its physico-chemical conditions [DOI]
  8. 8 Integrated water quality monitoring of Mahi river using benthic macroinvertebrates and comparison of its biodiversity among various stretches [DOI]
  9. 9 Limnological studies of Muntjibpur pond of Prayagraj (U.P.) in relation to planktons
  10. 10 Hydro biological Characteristics of Some Semi-intensive fish culture ponds of Lumding town of Nagaon district, Assam [DOI]
  11. 11 Plankton characterization of alpine ponds: a case of study for the assessment of water quality in Serra da Estrela (Portugal) [DOI]
  12. 12 Phytoplankton diversity in relation to physico-chemical parameters of Gnanaprekasam temple pond of Chidambaram in Tamilnadu, India.
  13. 13 Some aspect of the physico-chemical and biological properties of Cross river, an inland water body in South-eastern Nigeria [DOI]
  14. 14 Comparison of physico-chemical parameters and zooplankton diversity in two perennial ponds at Aligarh, India.
  15. 15 Limnology and Biodiversity of Fish Fauna in Virla Reservoir M.P. India [DOI]
  16. 16 Recent research in science and technology
  17. 17 Current World Environment [DOI]
  18. 18 The importance of terrestrial carbon in plankton food webs

Cited by 4

Zooplankton Abundance and Diversity of Bhima River at Sadepur, Solapur District, (M.S), India

Amruta S. Sutrave, Vidhya V. Shagalolu, L. Dama · International Journal of Scientific Research in Science and Technology · 2025

Zooplankton Diversity of Mustabad Cheruvu, Rajanna Sircilla District, Telangana

Kothapally Bhavani, G. Venkatesh, P. A. Reddy · International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology · 2024

ASSESSMENT OF WATER QUALITY AND SEASONAL FLUCTUATION OF ZOOPLANKTON POPULATION IN THE DORA BEEL ECOSYSTEM OF KAMRUP DISTRICT, ASSAM

K. Choudhury, S. Kalita · Pollution research · 2024

Showing 3 of 4 known citations — external sources report more than can currently be individually listed.

Related research

Article metrics

Real usage data collected on this platform.

7

Page views

0

PDF downloads

0

Outbound clicks

4

Citations

Views over time

Views by country

Approximate, from request IP at view time — not citizenship or institution. Countries with fewer than 5 views are grouped as "Other".

Traffic sources

Referring site, by host.

Views and downloads exclude known bots/crawlers. Citations combines this platform's own DOI-resolved index with each external source's own reported total — see Cited by above for individually listed citing works. Last refreshed 0 seconds ago.