Phytoplankton of Inner Ambon bay during east monsoon

Abstract

The Inner Ambon Bay has a potency for fisheries resources, especially the anchovy of the genus Stolephorus. This species is depended on the abundance of plankton organisms as their food sources. The research was carried out on east monsoon and was aimed to analyze the species composition, abundance, diversity, similarity and spatial distribution of phytoplankton in Inner Ambon Bay. Sampling was done by towing the Kitahara plankton net vertically from the depth of 5 meters to surface water at 10 stations. Sixty-four species of phytoplankton was found during the sampling periods. The phytoplankton abundance varied between 5.4 × 104cells/m3 and 7.7 × 105cells/m3. The average values of species diversity index (H’), evenness index (J’) and dominance index (D) were 1.31, 0.37 and 0.63, respectively. Similarity between stations ranged from 53.4% to 85.5% and can be grouped into three clusters. Spatial distribution showed that station 5, station 6 and station 8 were more abundant compare to other stations.