Diversity and Seasonal Variation of Aquatic Microbes and Micro-flora of an Urban Lake of Kolkata

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Authors

  • Bidisha Chatterjee
     Department of Microbiology, St. Xavier’s College (Autonomous), Kolkata ,IN
  • Arup Kumar Mitra
     Department of Microbiology, St. Xavier’s College (Autonomous), Kolkata ,IN
  • Sharadia Dey
     Department of Environmental Studies, St. Xavier’s College (Autonomous), Kolkata ,IN

Keywords:

Seasonal variation, Freshwater lentic ecosystem, Physico-chemical parameters, Microbial plethora, Probable toxicity.

Abstract

Rabindra Sarobar Lake is an important freshwater lentic ecosystem of city of Kolkata. This lake harbours a varied aquatic microflora and microbial community. These biota help in maintaining a balanced aquatic ecosphere. These microfloral and microbial assemblages of the lake still remained underexplored, and hence a study was carried out to work on their diversity and variation of communities in different seasons. Water samples were collected during three different seasons, namely, post-monsoon, pre-monsoon and monsoon, and these were followed by their physico-chemical and biological analysis. Biological analysis mainly included the study of culturable microbes and phytoplankton. The physico-chemical analysis revealed absence of metal toxicity and low nutrient concentration. The concentration of dissolved oxygen varied from 5.9-8.2 ppm and biological oxygen demand (BOD) from 0.8-4.4 ppm which are well within the acceptable range. But the MPN/100 ml for post-monsoon was >1600 which indicates faecal contamination. Several genera, namely, Bacillus, Escherichia, Klebsiella and Enterococcus were mainly isolated among which Bacillus was found to be the dominant genus. The probable pathogenicity of the isolated bacterial strains was evaluated using Blood agar. The haemolytic bacteria tested for antibiotic resistance exhibited antibiotic sensitivity against cefotaxime, tetracycline, co-trimoxazole and polymyxin-B selected based on their mode of action. Green algae isolated from the water samples revealed the dominance of Chlorophyceae which indicated the dissolved oxygen and BOD balance in the lentic ecosystem. The isolated fungi included pathogenic forms like Aspergillus and aquatic Mucor along with beneficial fungus like Penicillium.

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Published

2024-03-25

Issue

Volume 20, Issue 2, 2023

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Articles

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