Salt induced changes in the growth of Chlorococcum humicolo and Scenedesmus bijugatus under nutrient limited cultures.

Abstract

Due to climatic changes in tropics, saline water bodies are often subject to natural fluctuations of salinity through precipitation, dessication, drought conditions or anthropogenic interference. Growth and persistence of algae under these conditions require physiological tolerance and/or resistant stages in the life cycle. Salinity, which ranges from 95.9-174.7 mg/L as NaCI, is considered as an important parameter for the Indradyumna pond (485 x 396 sq ft, maximum depth 5 m) of Puri, Orissa for it is located at a distance of 1 km from the Bay of Bengal. The fluctuation of salinity level of the pond has been observed during 1988-1991 mostly due to excessive use by innumerable number of pilgrims all over the year (Dash 1992). Increased salinity favors growth of cyanobacteria because this is the only group of photoautotrophic plankton taxa requiring Na + for growth (Allen and Arnon 1955). Green algal species like halotolerant planktonic algae (Hellebust and Le Gresley 1985), Chlorella, Ankistrodesmus and Scenedesmus (Kessler 1980) have also been found to be favored by increased salinity. However, the rationale of studying salinity tolerance of algae under nutrient limited conditions seems to be more appropriate in the bioassay method because it is established that the susceptibility / resistance characteristic of an algal species to external stress is nutritionally determined (Herbert and Bradley 1989; Mohapatra and Mohanty 1992). Accordingly, it was decided to see the effects of salinity stress on two indigenous phytoplankton species viz., Chlorococcum humicolo (Nag) Rabenh. and Scenedem~us bijugatus KUtz. in culture with differential nutrient enrichment using the sterile pond water as medium.