Proc. Indian natn, Sci. Acad. BS3 No. 3 pp. 239-243 (1987) Studies on Periphyton Population of Himalayan Lakes. I. Species Composition and Community Structure on Natural and Artificial Substrates S G SARWAR™ and D P ZUTSHI Centre of Research for Development, University of Kashmir, Srinagar (Received 8 April 1987; after revision 29 July 1987) Periphyton communities from natural and artificial substrates of three Kashmir Himalayan lakes were investigated for species composition, seasonal changes and population dynamics. AA total of 214 taxa representing six Classes were recorded with Chlorophyceae contributing. ‘maximum of 99 taxa, In terms of percentage population composition the main contribution was that of diatoms, Different substrates from the same lake were colonised by almost similar array of parameters a. The three lakes differed slightly with regard to their water quality Key Words: Himalayan Lakes, Periphyton dynamics, Natural and artificial substrates Introduction Periphyton is an extremely heterogenous and complex association of organisms on sub-aquatic natural and artificial substrates. They are useful as ecological indicators for detecting the degree and severity of pollution as they are sessile and hence cannot avoid contact with the waste effluents. Although considerable information on the ecology of algae and other organisms of Indian inland waters is available, practically nothing is known about the ecology of periphyton communities except for the isolated works of Misra and Singh (1968). Singh (1970), Philipose et al. (1976), Vass. et al. (1978), Kumar (1985) and Sarwar and Zutshi (1987). ‘The objective of the present study is to describe the species ‘composition and community structure of periphyton on natural and artificial substrates of three Kashmir Himalayan Valley lakes. Description of the Lakes The lakes investigated were Dal, Anchar and Waskur (figure 1), Dal and Anchar lakes are close to Srinagar city and are exposed to urban influences. Waskur lake is situated under semi-urban conditions about 26 km north of Srinagar close to the right bank of river Jhelum. Dal lake (345 and 34°10 N lat. and 74°8 and 749 E long.) is multibasined with maximum depth of 6 m and surface area of 1056 ha. It is fed by perennial Telbal Nallah on its northern end. The lake water is drained into Jhelum iver. An additional channel discharges into nearby Anchar lake (lat 3420 -34 26'N; long. 7482 -74'85E) which is fed by springs and agricultural run off. It has a susface arca of 680 ha and maximum depth of 3.5 m, Waskur lake (lat 3416 N; long. 74°39'E) has the maximum depth of 6 m and surface area of 52.7 ha ‘The climatic condition of the lake area remains temperate for major part of the year. The basins of the investigated lakes are overgrown with macrophyte vegetation which sometimes covers up to 95% of the total area Materials and Methods Surface water samples were collected every month (1000-1200 hi) near the macrophyte stands of the lakes. In Dal Ike an additional sampling site was utilised for incubation of glass sliges. The surface water samples were collected in | litre polyethylene bottles. “Present address: Hydrobiology Research Laboratory, SP College, Srinagar 190 001240 SG Sarwar and D P Zutshi Figure 1. A, Map of Jammu and Kashmir State; B, Location map of lakes| Im the field, water temperature was recorded with a pre-calibrated centigrade thermometer. Conductivity values were determined clectrometrically. Methods from Mackereth (1963), APHA (1971) and Golterman etal, (1978) were used for analysing various, parameters. Periphyton were collected both from the artificial (viz, glass. slide) and the natural substrates (e.g... Myriophyllum — spicatum —Linn., Ceratophyllum demersum Linn., Nymphoides peltata._ Link. Potamogeton natans Linn, Typha angustifolia Bory and Chaub; and Phragmites communis Trim. The periphyton on artificial substrate was studied by fixing slides of 75%25 mm on a wooden cartier in vertical position in slots on both sides by means of a rubber cord (cf. Zobell & Allen 1933 and Sladeckova 1962). The slides, when immersed in water about 30cm below the surface, occupied a vertical position with respect to the water surface, Twenty-four slides were fixed in Dal as well’ as in Waskur lake and two slides frog each lake were taken out every month for qualitative and quantitative studies. In the laboratory the entite periphytic growth on the glass slides was scrapped thoroughly with a sharp-edged blade. ‘The method of Gough and Woelkerling (1946) was employed for the removal of periphyton from natural substrates of the pre-selected sites. The periphyton samples were centrifuged for about 5 min, at 1500 rpm and the material was preserved in Separate tubes for further investigation. Counting of Table 1 Periphytic composition of lakes Categories of algae No. of No. of taxa taxa common to thee lakes Chlorophyceac 99 45 Bacillariophyceae 90 59 Cyanophyceae a i Dinophyceae 2 2 Chrysophyceae ' 1 Ceyptophyceae 1 ' Total 204 Im ‘Table 2 Distribution of periphytic taxa within various algal classes Dal Anchar_ Waskur Bacillariophyceae ® 10 15 Chlorophyceae n 6s 0 Cyanophyceae 1s m7 Dinophyceae 2 2 2 Chrysophyceae 1 1 ' Cryptophyceae 1 1 1 Toul 178 154 166 periphyton was carried out in a Sedgwick Rafter Cell and the results expressed as number of organisms/em? of the slide surface and per 10 mg dry weight of the ‘macrophyte. The community coefficient was calculated according to Taylor (1974) Results ‘The periphyton associated with artificial and natural substrates of the three lakes consisted of 214 taxa representing six classes of algae (table 1,. Out of these 122 taxa’ were common to the lakes. ‘The classwise distribution of various taxa is given in table 2. Maximum number of taxa were recorded from Dal lake. Bacillariophyceae had the highest numerical representation followed closely by ‘Chlorophyceae Fifty-two taxa (36 from Bacillariophyceac, 8 from Cyanophyceae, 7 from Chlorophyceae and one from Dinophyceae) were common to both types of substrates. “The dominant taxa recorded in the present study were Achnanthes minutissima Kutz. Cocconeis placentula Ehr. Cymbella ventricosa (Kutz.) Meist, C. lanceolata(Ehr.) Brun. Eunotia _pectinalis Fragilaria construens (Ehr.) Grun. Gomphonema colivaceum (Lyngb.) Kutz, and Oedogonium sp. Cymbella sinuata Greg. Dictyosphaerium puichellum Wood and Kirchineriella obesa (W.West) Schmidle were recorded only on artificial substrates. ‘Ankistrodesmus spiralis. var. fasciculatus G.M. Smith, Staurastrum ‘unatum Breb. and Tetraedron caudatum (Corda) Hang. were restricted to emergent macrophytes; and Fremyella tenera (Thur.) J.De Toni, (Kutz) Rab., Gonatozygon pilosum Wolle and Quadrigula quarternata (W. et G.S. West) Printz. to floating macrophytes. In Dal lake, 178 taxa were collected. Out of these 51 axa were found on all the substrates. Taxa recoried farely or confined to only one substrate were: Ankistrodesmus falcatus var. radiatus, Arthodesmus incus and Tetraedron trigonum (Myriophyllum); Gomphonema turris and Pediastrum angulosum (Ceratophyllum); Fremyella tenera_(Nymphoides); Korshikoviella gracilipes and Dictyosphaerium indicum (Potamogeton); Surirella robusta and Pediastrum duplex (Typha); Pleurotaenium sp. (Phragmites); Cymbella sinuata, Phormidium tenue and Staurastrum curvatum (glass slide). Out of 166 taxa recorded from Waskur lake $1 were cosmopolitan in their distribution. Taxa restricted to only one type of substrate were Chactosphaeridium bulbosum and Pediastrum evatum (Myriophyllumy; Tetraedron incus (Ceratophyllum). Kirchineriella lunaris’ and Quadrigula quarternata’ (Nymphoides); Lyngbya sp. and Cosmarium ——bicardia (Potamogeton); Arthodesmus incus, Chaetophora incrassata and Lyngbya contorta_ (Typha); Gyrosigma _sigmoides (Phragmites); Cymbella sinuata and Surirella obesa (glass slide) In Anchar lake 154 taxa were collected from the natural substrates, out of which 53 were common. The rare taxa were —Rhicoisphenia —_curvata {Myriophyllum); Xanthidium sp. (Ceratophyllum); Gonatozygon pilosum (Nymphoides); Closterium acerosum (Potamogeton); Staurastrum —curvatum (Typha); and Anoemoeneis_—sphaerophora (Phragmites) The community coefficient values for the three lakes were almost same ¢.g., Dal (4.67-7.46; ~5.94%), Anchar (6.21-10.04;" 27.94%) and Waskur 5.0-7.71; 8- 6.51%) Among the natural substrates, Myriophyllum Supported rich and varied periphytic growth registering 154 taxa, The lowest representation (106 taxa) was observed on Phragmites, Similarly the highest Population density of 321.2% 10° units/10 mg dry wt ‘was recorded on Myriophyllum and minimum of 627 units/10 mg"'d wt. on Phragmites. In case of artificial Substrate, the population density varied from 1.3% 10* Periphyton Population of Himalayan Lakes 241 Table 3 Variance in the population density of periphyton colonising natural substrates Lake af F value F from tables Dal 5 and 66 3.90 0.05; 5.6 = 2.36 Waskur 5S and 66 5.51 Anchar 5 and 66 an units cm? to 17.6% 10° units cm? in Waskur lake, and from 1.2% 10* to 10.4% 10* units/em? in Dal lake. Dal lake registered higher number of species (117) on artificial substrates in comparison to Waskur lake (96). Periphytic growth on natural substrates was maximum in late autumn to carly spring and minimum during summer. In case of artificial substrate the population density remained low in both the lakes during autumn. Variance in the population density _—_was non-significant on similar natural substrates. But on artificial substrate significant variation was recorded with F value recorded as 4.95 which is higher than critical value of 3.26 at 5% level of significance. As shown in table 3 the population density colonising various natural substrates within the same lake registered significant variations. Discussion ‘The periphyton population recorded from similar natural substrates did not show any significant variations wi the investigated lakes. Even the sequence of dominant taxa was almost identical. The reason for this structural similarity may be attributed to almost identical physico-chemical environment prevailing in the lakes, (table 4). Small differences recorded in _ some parameters such as conductivity, alkalinity and total hosphorus may not be of such importance as to introduce the extent of variability that may be finally reflected in biological population When different natural substrates of a lake were taken into consideration significant variations were observed in the population density (table 3) and the dominance of different taxa. This would suggest that the nature of the substrate has an important rote to play gn the size and composition of the periphyton population. Many workers such as Young (1945), Newcombe (1950) and Foerster and Schlichting (1965) have emphasized the importance of substrate on the community structure and population density of periphyton. Tt has been observed that most of the dominant taxa ‘occurred regularly on various substrates and none was strictly limited to any one biotype in particular, a fact corroborating the general gutrophy of these lakes Hodgkiss and Tai (1976) also arrived at similar