Impact of Pulp and Paper Mill Effluents on Phytoplanktonic Community Structure in Ganga River at Bijnor (Up), India
R. K. Negi, Anjana Rajput
Study of impact of pulp and paper mill effluents on the qualitative and quantitative aspect of phytoplankton was undertaken from the four selected sites on Ganga river in Bijnor (UP), India i.e. site-I (control point), site-II (discharge point), site-III (500 mts from discharge point) and site-IV (1000 mts from discharge point). A total of 43 genera belonging to 5 groups viz., chlorophyceae (16 genera), bacillariophyceae (12 genera), cyanophyceae (10 genera), euglenophyceae (4 genera) and xanthophyceae (1 genus) were recorded from four study sites with chlorophyceae exhibiting maximum abundance and generic diversity at all the sites. Site-II (discharge point) exhibitedrnmaximum generic diversity with 43 genera (31.1% percentage occurrence). Loss and appearance of genera as well as significant increase or decrease in the abundance of sensitive and tolerant indicator genera were also studied. Synedra, Cocconeis and Spirulina were significantly abundant at the discharge point (site-II) and downstream (sites- III and IV) indicating high tolerance to the various paper mill effluents. Cladophora and Euglena disappeared at site-III which are sensitive to the effluents. Abundance of Botryococcus and Chlamydomonas increased at sites-III and IV as compared to the sites-I and II which are indicators of deteriorating water quality. Diversity index of phytoplankton was ranged between ‘H’ (0.000-0.313) at site- I, (‘H’) (0.000-0.301) at site- II, ‘H’ (0.000-0.3666) at site- III and ‘H’ (0.000-0.333) at site- IV. Phytoplankton were found positively correlated with DO (0.721**) and BOD (0.659**) and total alkalinity (0.623**) while negatively correlated with free CO2 (-0.593**), air temperature (-0.654**) and water temperature (-0.654**).
R. K. Negi, Anjana Rajput. Impact of Pulp and Paper Mill Effluents on Phytoplanktonic Community Structure in Ganga River at Bijnor (Up), India. J Entomol Zool Stud 2013;1(6):70-73.