Seasonal Variability of Phytoplankton Population in the Brahmani Estuary of Orissa, India

The dynamic relationship of water physico-chemical characteristics with phytoplankton has long been of great interest in both experimental ecology and environmental management. This study was carried out at the Brahmani Estuary (East coast, Bay Of Bengal, India) from March 2007 to November 2007. Based on the collected samples from six stations, phytoplankton population, DO, BOD, salinity and nutrient (o-PO4, NO3+NH3) were examined. The phytoplankton abundance varies with the seasonal variation. Due to wave action and circulation patterns DO distribution shows a marginal variation at different sampling points but the DO are relatively higher in the upstream compared to downstream, as oxygen solubility is higher for fresh water. In tropical climates higher light energy and temperature allow faster cycling of nutrients, thus seasonal maxima and minima of nutrient level are more difficult to asses and in general the nutrient concentration are low. Phytoplankton abundance increased through the increasing trend in salinity to the extent found in this investigation. A regression plot analysis exhibit a positive value i.e. R2 = 0.7897, or correlates with each other up to 78.97%.