On the occurrence of Trichodesmium erythraeum (Ehr.) bloom in the coastal waters of Kalpakkam, east coast of India

K K  Satpathy; A K  Mohanty; G  Sahu; M V R  Prasad; R  Venkatesan; U  Natesan  and M  Rajan

doi:10.17485/ijst/2008/v1i2/7

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On the occurrence of Trichodesmium erythraeum (Ehr.) bloom in the coastal waters of Kalpakkam, east coast of India

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Indian Journal of Science and Technology

DOI: 10.17485/ijst/2008/v1i2/7

Year: 2008, Volume: 1, Issue: 2, Pages: 1-9

Original Article

On the occurrence of Trichodesmium erythraeum (Ehr.) bloom in the coastal waters of Kalpakkam, east coast of India

K.K. Satpathy^1*, A.K. Mohanty² , G. Sahu³ , M.V.R. Prasad¹ , R. Venkatesan³ , U. Natesan² and M. Rajan¹

¹ Environmetal & Industrial Safety Section, Safety Group, Indira Gandhi Center for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam-603 102, Tamil Nadu, India
²Center for Environmental Studies, Anna University, Chennai- 600 025, India
³National Institute of Ocean Technology, Chennai- 601 302, India

*Author for the correspondence:
K.K. Satpathy
Environmetal & Industrial Safety Section, Safety Group Indira Gandhi Center for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam-603 102, Tamil Nadu, India
E-mail: [email protected]

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

A prominent discolouration of the Abstract: coastal waters by the blue-green alga Trichodesmium erythraeum was encountered in the east coast of Kalpakkam on 16th March 2007. The bloom persisted only for one day exhibiting visible alteration in physico-chemical properties and phytoplankton community structure of the coastal waters. The Trichodesmium cell density was 4.14 x 106 cells l-1, sharing 74.19 % of the total cell count (5.57 x 106 cells l-1). Only 24 species of phytoplankton were encountered on the day of bloom as compared to the highest number of 44 species in a single observation during pre- and post-bloom periods (1st March to 29th March). Concentration of chlorophyll-a and phaeopigments increased to about 20 times on the day of bloom compared to the pre-bloom values. An abrupt increase in ammonia, total nitrogen and phosphate was noticed on the day of bloom. The impact of this bloom on coastal water quality is reported.

Keywords: Trichodesmium erythraeum, algae, bloom, marine cyanobacterium, east coast, India.