Jurnal Biodjati 5(1):63-69, May 2020 e-ISSN

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p-ISSN : 2548-1606

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COMPARATIVE STUDY ON PHYTOPLANKTON COMMUNITY IN

TWO NEWLY DUG PONDS IN INSTITUT TEKNOLOGI SUMATERA

Hendry Wijayanti1*, Andy Darmawan2

Received : March 12, 2020 Abstract. Phytoplankton community plays an important ecological
Accepted : May 05, 2020 role in the aquatic ecosystems as the primary producers and forms the
fundament of the aquatic food chain for supporting the water commu-
DOI: 10.15575/biodjati.v5i1.7996
nity. Thus, the phytoplankton community structure is a good indica-
1,2
Department of Biology, Faculty of tor of water quality due to its sensitiveness to environmental stresses.
Science, Institut Teknologi Sumatera Two newly dug ponds in Institut Teknologi Sumatera may give an op-
Jl. Terusan Ryacudu, Way Huwi, Kec. portunity to study the early colonizing stages of various freshwater
Jati Agung, Kabupaten Lampung Sela- communities including phytoplankton. The study attempted to deter-
tan, Lampung 35365 mine the composition and abundance of phytoplankton. Samples were
collected from two ponds (A and C) in the reservoir water of Institut
e-mail:
Teknologi Sumatera. The content of Phosphorus (P), Nitrogen (N),
*[email protected]
2
[email protected] and Chlorophyll-a (algae biomass) were determined. Phytoplankton
had higher diversity in Pond C than Pond A in the study period, in
which a total of seven taxa were found, namely Bacillariophycea,
*Corresponding author Cyanophyceae, Chlorophyceae, Conjugatophyceae, Dinophyceae,
Euglenophyceae, Gymnodiniaceae. The most species abundance of
both ponds was Peridinium sp. and Trachelomonas sp. The Pond C
had the highest mean value of the Shannon-Wiener diversity index.
The Linear mixed-effect model showed that low turbidity will result
in high phytoplankton diversity. The finding of this study suggests that
higher phytoplankton diversity would achieve a natural carrying ca-
pacity, and thus would serves as an indicator of ecosystem health.

Keywords: lentic, nutrients, phytoplankton, water quality

Citation
Wijayanti, H. & Darmawan, A. (2020). Comparative Study on Phytoplankton Community in Two
Newly Dug Ponds in Institut Teknologi Sumatera. Jurnal Biodjati, 5(1), 63-69.

INTRODUCTION suitable for determining the trophic status and

the organic pollution in the ecosystem (Ram-
Phytoplankton community plays an chandra & Solanki, 2007).
important ecological role in the aquatic eco- Phytoplankton has the sensitivity to the
systems as the primary producers and forms environmental variations such as water tem-
the fundament of the aquatic food chain for perature and light that are the major physical
supporting the zooplankton and fish (Gra- variables influencing the photosynthesis of
ham et al., 2009; Sarker & Wiltshire, 2017). phytoplankton in lakes and reservoirs, while
Phytoplankton community structure is a good turbulence, pH, and, water circulation deter-
indicator of water quality due to its sensitive- mine algal communities (Wetzel, 2001). The
ness of stresses. Therefore, phytoplankton is availability of nutrients is required for phy-
 Jurnal Biodjati 5(1):63-69, May 2020

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toplankton development, in which different MATERIALS AND METHODS

phytoplankton species require different nutri-
ents for their optimal growth (Sivonen, 1990; The study was conducted in two ponds
Wetzel, 2001; Sabour et al., 2009). Addition- for a period 4 months from May and contin-
ally, the proportion of total nitrogen and to- ued in September to November 2017: pond A
tal phosphorus are commonly responsible for and pond C in the reservoir water of ITERA
the phytoplankton structure (Smith, 1983). (Figure 1). Due to construction from June to
Moreover, nutrient availability, light supply August in both ponds, the sampling activi-
and, turbidity have an important key role in ty was postponed. The location of Pond A is
phytoplankton growth (Shiah et al., 1996; at latitude of 5°21’34.465” and longitude of
Ssanyu & Schageri, 2010). Meanwhile, turbid 105°18’48.678” which has an area of 1.72 ha
water leads re-suspension of particles reduc- and depth of 8.20 feet. Meanwhile, the loca-
ing photoautotroph due to limited light supply tion of Pond C is at latitude of 5°21’ 33.036”
(Hargreaves, 1998). and longitude of 105°18’ 50.628” which has
Institut Teknologi Sumatera (ITERA) an area of 1.05 ha and depth of 13.12 feet.
has constructed seven ponds since 2016 in or- Among the two lentic ponds, the A pond has
der to preserve water supplies and to create a a wider area and a construction activity took a
habitat for organisms, such as fishes and tur- longer period.
tles. The rainfall has started to replenish the Water samples for both phytoplankton
pond in August 2016 and during that time, a and water quality were collected monthly
renovation activity leads to soil erosion. The during the day between 08:00 am to 11:00 am
ITERA ponds are categorized as a shallow from the surface water of both lentic ponds.
pond which does not undergo seasonal tem- Phytoplankton samplings were taken into 100
perature-induced water body stratification mL plastic bottles by the plankton net (no. 25).
and is influenced by the weather such as rain- The sample in plastic bottles of 50 mL was
fall and anthropogenic activities. Moreover, stored in the cooling box and persevered with
the newly built lentic water may be present Lugol’s iodine for subsequent microscop-
in physical and chemical variables that affect ic analysis of phytoplankton species under
the pioneer communities, mainly in the phy- the light microscope Olympus. Phytoplank-
toplankton community (Soares et al., 2008). tons were identified to genus level according
Here, the main focus on the study was in two to Prescott (1954); Scott & Prescott (1961);
lentic ponds (pond A and C) which are located Janse van Vuuren et al. (2006); Bellinger &
close to and have similar water supply sourc- Sigee (2010).
es. The mainly ITERA’s ponds water supply- As the highest productivity in the ponds
ing sources are from rainwater. Furthermore, was at the 10 cm depth at maximum rates, water
the both lentic ponds are currently used as samples were collected at 0-10 cm depth and
rearing of Channa striata and Oreochromis then put into 140 mL glass bottles. The water
niloticus. Hence, the aim of this study was to samples were kept at 4°C prior to analyzing
investigate the carrying capacity through the in Laboratorium Terpadu dan Sentra Inovasi
diversity of the phytoplankton which is devel- Teknologi, Lampung University. Phosphorus
oped in early environmental condition in two (P) and Nitrogen (N) were determined using
newly dug ponds in ITERA. spectrophotometry with MP-AES 4200 and
Uv-Vis respectively, while chlorophyll-a (al-
Wijayanti & Darmawan 64
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gae biomass) was determined by the Kjeldahl diversity index was calculated by formula:
method. Meanwhile, the turbidity was mea-
sured using Secchi disk. H’ = –Σpi ln pi
The data were analyzed using R 3.0.0
program. Kruskall-Wallis test was conducted Where pi is the proportion of phytoplank-
to assess the difference of environmental fac- ton of ith species (amount of ith species/total
tors in each pond. Phytoplankton Shannon’s number of phytoplankton) (Magurran, 1998).

Figure 1. Location of Pond A and C of ITERA in 2017. The pictures were taken in May before construction.

Linear mixed effect model with random rophyll content was omitted because they
intercept and pond as a group was applied to were not collinear among predictors. The
assess the parameter affecting phytoplankton predictors were simplified using AIC. Ho-
diversity (Pinheiro et al., 2013). Diversity in- mogeneity of variance was assessed by re-
dex was set as a response, environmental fac- sidual vs. fitted value plot and independence
tors (turbidity, P and N) as predictors. All of violation of homogeneity and independence.
the predictors were converted into a similar Meanwhile, the abundance of phyto-
scale by applying log-transformation. Col- plankton was observed using a sweeping
linearity between predictors was analyzed method above the Sedgwick Rafter glass ob-
by the value of the Variance Inflation Factor ject with individual units per milliliter (ind
(VIF). VIF value= 3.00 is set as threshold. mL-1). The calculation of phytoplankton
All predictors had a VIF value of <3.00, so abundance was according to APHA (2012), as
no predictor was omitted. Meanwhile, chlo- follows:
Jurnal Biodjati 5(1):63-69, May 2020 65
 Jurnal Biodjati 5(1):63-69, May 2020

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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In total, 11 phytoplankton species from

Where:
7 taxonomic groups as follows: Bacillariophy-
N : phytoplankton abundance (ind mL-1)
cea (2 spp.), Cyanophyceae (2 spp.), Chloro-
oi : cover-glass area (mm2)
phyceae (2 spp.), Conjugatophyceae (1 spp.),
op : view area (mm2)
Dinophyceae (1 spp.), Euglenophyceae (2
Vr : filtered water volume (mL)
spp.), Gymnodiniaceae (1 spp.) were identified
Vo : observed water volume (mL)
during the study period (Table 1). However,
n : number of phytoplankton in the entire
the Phytoplankton communities identified in
view area
Pond A were found only four species, namely
p : number of view areas
Cyclotella sp., Volvox sp., Peridinium sp. and
Tracelomonas sp. Among the two ponds A and
C, the most species abundance of both ponds
was Peridinium sp. and Trachelomonas sp.

Table 1. The dominance species of phytoplankton in Pond A and C ITERA.

Pond
Classes Ordos Familia Genera Species Location
A C

Bacillariophyceae Stephanodiscales Stephanodiscaceae Cyclotella Cyclotella sp. + +

Choococcus Choococcus sp. +

Cyanophyceae Chroococcales Chroococcaceae
Aphanocopsa
Aphanocopsa +
sp.
Chlamydomonadales Volvocaceae Volvox Volvox sp. + +
Scenedesmus
Chlorophyceae Sphaeropleales Scenedesmaceae Scenedesmus +
sp.
Pleurococcus
Chaetophorales Chaetophoraceae Pleurococcus +
sp.
Conjugatophyceae Desmidiales Desmidiaceae Staurastrum Staurastrum sp. +

Dinophyceae Peridiniales Peridiniaceae Peridinium Peridinium sp. ++ ++

Tracelomonas
Tracelomonas ++ ++
Euglenophyceae Euglenales Euglenaceae sp.
Phacus Phacus sp. +
Gymnodinium
Gymnodiniaceae Gymnodiniaceae Gymnodiniaceae Gymnodinium   +
sp.
+=rare, ++=dominant. The frequency of occurrence of different phytoplankton species.

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As shown in result (Table 1), the phyto- while, green algae showed the highest share
plankton community in Pond C reported had taxonomic structure in term of the number of
higher diversity than in Pond A. Furthermore, identified taxa founded in both Pond A and
Pond C had the highest mean value of Shan- C (Table 1). The species diversity expressed
non-Wiener diversity index (Table 2). From with the Shannon index was on a lower level
the investigation, it is apparent that Euglonoid within the range 0.06-1.40 at the majority of
(Trachelomonas sp.) and Dinoflagelate (Per- sampling sites. The lowest value of the index
idinium sp.) were the most frequently iden- was recorded at Pond A (Table 1).
tified species in both Ponds A and C. Mean-
Table 2. Physic-chemical parameters at the study site.
Pond Location
Parameter P-value
Pond A Pond C
Phosphorus (mg/L) 0.14-0.67 0.05-0.64 0.77
Nitrogen (mg/L) 5.4-28.7 0.9-22.8 0.77
Chlorophyll α (µg/L) 7.6-8.6 31.8-122.8 0.03
Turbidity (cm) 3-18.6 22.1-54.3 0.02
Temperature (°C) 26-29 28-30.5 0.15
Shannon-Wiener diversity Index 0.06-0.68 0.62-1.40
Abundance (ind/mL) 161.88 293.78

From the data (Table 2), it is clear that of organisms might reflect the water quality
turbidity and chlorophyll showed significant and the environmental condition in the aquatic
difference between Pond A and Pond C. The ecosystem. Compared to Pond A, Pond C has
mean score for chlorophyll α concentration higher phytoplankton diversity, even though
was significantly higher in Pond C (range of both Ponds, from June to August 2017, were
13.6-164.7 µg/L) than of Pond A site (range under construction. The construction activi-
of 0.25-16.36 µg/L). Meanwhile, water clar- ty enhanced the suspended solid around the
ity of Pond C was indicated turbidity of the pond due to the dredging project. However,
water body (20.5-56 cm) is at a higher level Pond C had the lower turbidity, the possible
than Pond A (2.5-21 cm). A further statistical explanation of these results may be the grow-
test revealed that the turbidity was significant ing soil-holding grass surrounding pond bank
among sites (P=0.02). Interestingly, Linear decreasing of the soil erosion (Kopp et al.,
mixed effect model showed that low turbidi- 2016). On the contrary, Pond A had high tur-
ty will result in high phytoplankton diversity. bidity due to soil erosion, which has a rela-
Despite the result, as shown in the table 2 re- tively high increase in the inorganic turbidity
vealed that organic matters such as phospho- levels (Anderson, 2011; Knud-Hansen, 1997).
rus and nitrogen were higher in pond A. The high nutrient supply leads to relatively
The initial objective of the project was light limitation, which was rather the primary
to identify the phytoplankton community in controlling factor for plankton productivity in
early colonization in the newly formed pond Pond A (Shiah et al., 1996).
as well as the physicochemical of its water. This study showed that turbidity has
The current study found that higher diversity a significant factor affecting phytoplankton
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growth. Turbidity is associated with the light pacity and thus may serve as an indicator of
intensity that may affect the productivity of ecosystem health (Sarker & Wiltshire, 2017).
phytoplankton (Wetzel, 2010). Water bodies Moreover, the abiotic factor, such as growing
with a higher diversity of phytoplankton gen- soil-holding grass, which is growing in sur-
erally affected water quality, which could be rounding pond body, will reduce the turbidity.
observed through the fluctuation in its biotic
and abiotic variables (Sipauba-Tavare et al., ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
2010). Moreover, the turbidity will inhibit
photosynthesis by blocking sunlight (Wetzel, The authors thank the financial support
2001). Generally, low light supply controls from Institut Teknologi Sumatera for research
the phytoplankton productivity in small eu- grant of the Penelitian Dasar No. 38/IT9.C/
trophic water bodies such as the ponds (Shiah PP/2017.
et al., 1996).
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