Editorial Board

Editor-in-Chief: Petre Gastescu, Hyperion University of Bucharest (Romania)
Managing Editor: Petre Bretcan, Valahia University of Targoviste (Romania)
Volume 10(2) / 2016
ISSN: 1844-6477 (print version)
ISSN: 2284-5305 (electronic version)

 

 

  

 

TAXONOMIC RICHNESS AND QUANTITATIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PHYTOPLANKTON COMMUNITY IN THE EPILIMNION OF LAKE YEREVAN (ARMENIA)

 

Arevik MINASYAN 1,2

1UNESCO Chair in Life Sciences, International Postgraduate Educational Center, Acharian 31, Yerevan 0040, Armenia, Tel: +37410 624170, Fax: +37410 612461, E-mail: arevik_m@inbox.ru
2 Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Department of Biology II, Aquatic Ecology, 82152 Planegg-Martinsried, Germany

Abstract

Phytoplankton in Lake Yerevan includes about 140 species belonging to 9 genera. Diatoms were the lead contributors to the algal community species richness formation. The second subdominance shared greens and cyanobacteria (quantitative data on cyanobacteria are not presented in this paper). Euglenophyta and Dinophyta were the next, albeit with a lesser variety and frequency to occur. Certain genera, such as Charophyta, Cryptophyta, Chrysophyta, and Haptophyta, have occurred relatively rare. A trend of a remarkable increase in phytoplankton densities was observed from 2012 to 2013 with bloom formation in June and decrease to 2014. Algal numbers increased gradually from 2012 to 2013, with the low values registered in May 2012. The values of abundance in May 2013 differed significantly between the stations (about 115 times: 2540.06 cells mL-1 for X 1 and 293138.7 cells mL-1 for X 2). In 2014 was no bloom formation and relatively low algal numbers, in similar range of values for 2012, demonstrated slight decrease in algal density for the inshore stations. For the nearshore stations were observed the highest values of density in 2014, again for the right bank.

Keywords: Lake Yerevan, euthrophication, water level manipulations, climate warming, phytoplankton community, toxic algae, diatoms, greens

  
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