Assessment of physico-chemical properties of pond water in relation to seasonal changes of algal floral composition at Balagarh, Hooghly in West Bengal, India

The usual changes of water physico-chemical properties from one season to another resulted in the formation and development of different algal species in a stagnant aquatic ecosystem (pond) located at Balagarh, Hooghly in West Bengal, India. The shifting of climatic conditions as well as water nutrients status probably triggered the variations in the algal floral diversities in the studied freshwater pond. Taxonomically, 30 different algal species have been identified from this water body. During the study period in 2015, it has been found that Chlorophyceae was dominated over the other algal classes, followed by members of Myxophyceae, Bacillariophyceae and Euglenineae. Five algal species had been found through out the year of investigation. Nine physico-chemical parameters like temperature, pH, DO, BOD, COD, nitratenitrogen, phosphate, turbidity and total alkalinity (TA) were analyzed in this work following the standard procedure of APHA (2005). The result of this study showed that water was alkaline and turbid with moderate range of COD and total alkalinity values. This study also exhibited that the pond was productive, beneficial for fish farming and combination of those factors encouraged the periodicity and diversity of algal flora.