Ecological Assessment of the River Nile Status around Gizert El-Warrak using Phytoplankton and Macroinvertebrates Assemblages

Mahmoud, Kadria M. A.; Sayed, Sara S. M.; Habib, Mohamed R.

doi:10.21608/ejabf.2018.10108

Ecological Assessment of the River Nile Status around Gizert El-Warrak using Phytoplankton and Macroinvertebrates Assemblages

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

10.21608/ejabf.2018.10108

Abstract

Biological assessment is considered a useful tool for assessing the ecological status of the aquatic ecosystems. Therefore, the goal of the present study was to use phytoplankton and macroinvertebrates as biological tools for ecological assessment of the River Nile around Gizert El-Warrak. A total of 33 phytoplankton species were recorded at the studied stations; these include 16 species of Chlorophyta, 5 Cyanophyta and 12 Bacillariophyta species. All investigated stations were characterized by high organic pollution according to Palmer′s index. Trophic state index showed a hyper-eutrophic status in stations S1, S2, S4, S6 and S8 and an eutrophic status in stations S3, S5 and S7.Gastropoda and Oligochaeta were the most dominant of macroinvertebrates taxa recorded 50.8 and 24.6% of all biota, respectively. Diversity Index (H′) ranged between (1.14 - 2), which indicated that the structure of macroinvertebrate habitats was poor. Moreover, Evenness Index (J) ranged between (0.016 – 0.043), which indicated that individuals were not distributed equally. The values of biotic index (HBI) depending on macroinvertebrates categories showed that the River Nile’s water quality is fairly poor with significant organic pollution.

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