- Abundance, condenser, crystallizer, microalgae, reservoir, saltworks.
Abstract
Saltworks are important wetlands and exposed to wide range of environmental stress and perturbations. Fluctuations of salinity, brine chemistry and nutrient status leads to variation in microalgal population. The typical saltworks Sri Sankara Allom, Puthalam was chosen for the study. The investigation was aimed to list out the microalgae and calculates their abundance. The work was done in different seasons (I, II, III and IV) of the study period (March 2009 to February 2010). The reservoir pond showed major variation among micro algal species but it was low in condenser pond. Only two micro algal species were observed in crystallizer pond. A gradual reduction in number of micro algal species was observed with an increase in salinity. With regard to crystallizer, Dunaliella was the dominant one throughout the study period.