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Phytoplankton communities as bio-indicators of water quality in a mining-affected area of the river Ganga, Haridwar, India

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Abstract

The present study investigated the status of the phytoplankton community as a bio-indicator of Ganga River’s water quality under riverbed mining and wastewater disposal impacted regions of Haridwar, India. The data were analyzed using various tools such as coefficient of variation (CV), principal component analysis (PCA), detrended correspondence analysis (DCA), Pearson's correlation, and canonical correspondence analysis (CCA). The PCA analysis showed that the parameters such as electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, turbidity, total hardness, and alkalinity had the highest factor loadings in the mining-influenced zones. A total of thirty-two phytoplankton species were found belonging to four families: Chlorophyceae (53.82%), Bacillariophyceae (37.02%), Cyanophyceae (7.72%), and Dinophyceae (1.45%). The phytoplankton species identified at DCA, i.e., Diatom sp., Navicula sp., Synendra sp., occurred in greater abundance in the non-mining-influenced zones while Euglena sp., Ulothrix sp., and Volvox sp. occurred in the mining-influenced zones. Moreover, CCA showed a strong relationship between water quality parameters and the phytoplankton community. Overall, this study suggests that anthropogenic activities in the study area had a significant impact (P < 0.05) on phytoplankton diversity and therefore decisive measures should be taken to conserve, which serves as the main food for fish.

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Abbreviations

BIS:

Bureau of Indian standards,

DCA:

Detrended correspondence analysis

PCA:

Principal component analysis,

CCA:

Canonical correspondence analysis;

ind./L:

Individuals/L

EC:

Electrical conductivity

WT:

Water temperature

TU:

Turbidity

TDS:

Total dissolved solids

DO:

Dissolved oxygen

BOD:

Biochemical oxygen demand

Na + :

Sodium

K + :

Potassium

TH:

Total hardness

TA:

Alkalinity

Ca2 + :

Calcium

Mg2 + :

Magnesium

S:

Salinity

PP1:

Ankistrodesmus Sp.

PP2:

Chlamydomonas Sp.

PP3:

Chlorella Sp.

PP4:

Closterium Sp.

PP5:

Cladophora Sp.

PP6:

Eudorina Sp.

PP7:

Eudornia Sp.

PP8:

Oocystis Sp.

PP9:

Pediastrum Sp.

PP10:

Spirogyra Sp.

PP11:

Scenedesmus Sp.

PP12:

Ulothrix Sp.

PP13:

Vaucheria Sp.

PP14:

Volvox Sp.

PP15:

Euglena Sp.

PP16:

Amphora Sp.

PP17:

Cymbella Sp.

PP18:

Denticula Sp.

PP19:

Diatom Sp.

PP20:

Fragilaria Sp.

PP21:

Gomphonema Sp.

PP22:

Navicula Sp.

PP23:

Nitzschia Sp.

PP24:

Pinnularia Sp.

PP25:

Rhopalodia Sp.

PP26:

Synedra Sp.

PP27:

Tabellaria Sp.

PP28:

Anabaena Sp.

PP29:

Microcystis Sp.

PP30:

Nostoc Sp.

PP31:

Ceratium Sp.

PP32:

Peridinium Sp.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are highly grateful to the Department of Zoology and Environmental Science, Gurukula Kangri (Deemed to be University), Haridwar, India is highly acknowledged for providing infrastructural facilities.

Funding

This work is financially supported by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), New Delhi, India through INSPIRE program grant number IF160805.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology and Environmental Science, Gurukula Kangri, Deemed To Be University, Haridwar, Uttarakhand, 249404, India

    Vishal Kamboj, Nitin Kamboj, Amit Kumar Sharma & Aditi Bisht

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  1. Vishal Kamboj
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  2. Nitin Kamboj
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  4. Aditi Bisht
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Contributions

VK contributed to conceptualization, methodology, investigation, writing: original draft, preparation, data curation, software, and validation; NK contributed to supervision, resources, validation, and writing: review and editing; AKS contributed to validation, data curation; and writing: review and editing; AB contributed to validation and writing: review and editing;

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Correspondence to Nitin Kamboj.

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Kamboj, V., Kamboj, N., Sharma, A.K. et al. Phytoplankton communities as bio-indicators of water quality in a mining-affected area of the river Ganga, Haridwar, India. Energ. Ecol. Environ. 7, 425–438 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40974-022-00238-5

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