Diversity of Blue Green Algae from Paddy Fields

M Aruna

doi:10.18483/ijsci.1010

Abstract

Blue green algae are found in all types of aquatic bodies. Paddy fields represent one such habitat. An attempt has been made to isolate cyanobacteria from paddy fields of Siddipet region in Telangana State. Blue Green Algae are the most important nitrogen fixing organisms because of their autotrophic nutrition and flourish in paddy fields and known to sustain the fertility of this ecosystem. This paddy ecosystem allows BGA to function properly, selectively and effectively.To initiate the study, soil samples were collected in clean polythene bags. At the time of collection, the surface of the sampling station was cleaned by removing small stones, pebbles and grasses. The collected samples were brought to the laboratory, cultures were maintained and periodical observations were made on alga appearing in the cultures. As many as 34 species of cyanobacteria were identified.Both heterocystous and non- heterocystous forms were observed. The Nostocaceae has been reported by maximum number of genera and species. The genera Scytonema, Oscillatoria, Nostoc and Lyngbya were represented by maximum number of species.

Highlights

The Blue Green Algae are unicellular or filamentous that sometimes form structures recognizable with naked eye, but usually requires a microscope for identification, they differ from other groups in this flora in that they are prokaryotes
The popular name for the group Blue Green Algae comes from the color of the cells seen under the microscope
Rusults and Discussion An extensive study made to find out the diversity and occurrance of Blue green algal population in different study sites of Siddipet region, Medak district, Telangana state has revealed a total of 40 species of blue green algae belonging to families Nostocaceae, Chroococaceae, Scytonemataceae and Oscillatoriaceae as shown in Table:[1]

Summary

Introduction

The Blue Green Algae are unicellular or filamentous that sometimes form structures recognizable with naked eye, but usually requires a microscope for identification, they differ from other groups in this flora in that they are prokaryotes. Their cell contents are not differentiated in to membrane bound structures such as the nucleus,chloroplast,mitochondria. The popular name for the group Blue Green Algae comes from the color of the cells seen under the microscope The pigments in their cells like chlorophyll-a, phycocyanin, phycoerythrin express their colour (Kondo and Yasuda 2003).

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