Some Freshwater Green Algae of Raja-Rani Wetland, Letang, Morang: New for Nepal
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
2020J. Pl. Res. Vol. 18, No. 1, pp 6-26, 2020 Journal of Plant Resources Vol.18, No. 1 Some Freshwater Green Algae of Raja-Rani Wetland, Letang, Morang: New for Nepal Shiva Kumar Rai1*, Kalpana Godar1and Sajita Dhakal2 1Phycology Research Lab, Department of Botany, Post Graduate Campus, Tribhuvan University, Biratnagar, Nepal 2National Herbarium and Plant Laboratories, Department of Plant Resources, Godawari, Lalitpur, Nepal *E-mail: [email protected] Abstract Freshwater green alga of Raja-Rani wetland has been studied. A total 36 algal samples were collected from 12 sites by squeezing the submerged aquatic plants. Present paper describes 35 green algae under 18 genera from Raja-Rani wetland as new record for Nepal.Genus Euastrum consists 5 species; genera Cosmarium, Staurodesmus, and Staurastrum consist 4 species each; genera Scenedesmus, Closterium, Pleurotaeniuum and Xanthidium consist 2 species each; and rest genera consist only single taxa each. Water parameters of the wetland of winter, summer and rainy seasons were also recorded. Keywords: Chlorophyceae, Cosmarium, New report, Staurodesmus, Triploceras,Xanthidium Introduction climatic condition and rich aquatic habitats for algae, extensive exploration is lacking in the history.Suxena Algae are the simplest photosynthetic thalloid plants, & Venkateswarlu (1968), Hickel (1973), Joshi usually inhabited in water and moist environment (1979), Subba Raju & Suxena (1979), Shrestha & throughout the world. Green algae are the largest Manandhar (1983), Hirano (1984), Ishida (1986), and most diverse group of algae, with about 8000 Watanabe & Komarek (1988), Haga & Legahri species known (Guiry, 2012). They have wide range (1993), Watanabe (1995), Baral (1996, 1999), Das of habitats as they grow in freshwater, marine, & Verma (1996), Prasad (1996), Komarek & subaerial, terrestrial, epiphytic, endophytic, parasitic, Watanabe (1998), Simkhada et al. (2006), Rai & symbiotic, epizoic and endozoic conditions. In Misra (2010), Jüttner et al. (2011), Jha & Kargupta freshwater environment, green algae preferably grow (2012),Krstiæ et al. (2013), Necchi et al. (2016), in stagnant water like ponds, pools, puddles, lakes Shrestha & Rai (2017), Rajopadhyaya et al. (2017), etc. Their size also ranges from microscopic Rajopadhyaya & Rai (2016-18), Rai & Khadka unicellular, colonial to extensively large filamentous (2017), Rai & Rai (2018), Rai & Poudel (2019),etc. forms. Their characteristic fresh green colouration have collected many algae from different places at is due to the presence of chlorophyll a and b which different times in Nepal. Most of the exploratory are not masked by other accessory pigments. Green works on algae were carried out in and around algae are ecologically important as they are the major Kathmandu Valley and in the Eastern and Central producers in the freshwater ecosystem. mountain regions of Nepal. At present, total algae Numerous taxonomic studies on algae have been of Nepal is 998 including 29 endemic species (Rai carried out in the world. Contributions made by & Ghimire, 2020). Turner (1892), West & West (1902), Bruehl & Especially on chlorophycean algae of Nepal, Biswas (1926), Geitler (1932), Fritsch & Rich contributions have been made by the following (1937), Scott & Prescott (1960), Komarek (1983), authors: chlorophyceae (Prasad et al. 1985, Sahay Kouwets (1987), Gandhi (1999), Stastny (2010), et al. 1992, Rai 2009), desmids (Förster 1965, Matthews (2016) etc. for the algal flora of different Watanabe 1982- Closterium; Bando et al. 1989; parts of the world are acknowledgeabe. In the context Habib & Chaturvedi 1995, 1997; Ichimura 1997- of Nepal, even though our country has diverse 6 2020 Journal of Plant Resources Vol.18, No. 1 Closterium ehrenberghii; Rai & Misra 2008; Rai et wetland system has no permanent source of water al. 2008; Rai 2014), and chlorococcales (Nakano & as this is being fed by ground source “Jaruwa”, Watanabe 1988; Chaturvedi& Habib 1996; Nozaki seasonal forest fed streams and direct precipitation. 1998, 1990- colonial volvovales; Nozaki & Kuroiwa This wetland has been managed by Raja-Rani 1990, 1991- Volvulina compacta and Gonium Community Forest Users Group. The local people multicoccum respectively; Rai & Misra 2012- formed a Raja-Rani Pokhari Conservation Pediastrum; Rai 2013- Scenedesmus), filamentous Committee particularly for managing this wetland. green algae (Muller 1965- Spirogyra nepalensis; The wetland area is rich in biodiversity (Ministry of Dwivedi 1985- Chaetophora; Haga 1988; Akiyama Forests and Soil Conservation [MoFSC] 2012). 1989- Trentepohlia; Kargupta & Jha 1997- Stigeoclonium; Rai & Misra 2007- Spirogyra and The aquatic vegetation in the pondas floating species Sirogonium; Rai 2012- Oedogonium). Chlorophycean were Eichhornia cracipes, Pistia stratiotes, algae of Raja-Rani wetland has been published Spirodella polyrhiza, Azolla imbricata, Nymphaea earlier by Godar & Rai (2018). From the same nouchali, Nymphoides hydrophylla, N. indica, collection, only the new reports for Nepal are being Nelumbo nucifera; as submergedspecies were described in this paper. Ceratophyllum demersum, Ottelia alismoides, Hydrilla verticillata etc. Other wetland species were Pirre Jhar (Polygonum hydropiper), Narkat Materials and Methods (Phragmites kharka), Cyperus esculentus, C. Study area pilosus, Floscopa scandens, Hygrophila polysperma, H. quadrivalvis, Panicum psilopodium, Raja-Rani (Dhimal Pokhari) wetland lies in Persicaria hydropiper, Rotala rotundifolia, 26°44.9'22''N and 87°28.9'10''E, at an altitude 470 Saciolepis indica etc. The surrounding terrestrial m asl in Letang Muncipality 1, Morang district, vegetation is mixed type forest dominated by Sal Nepal (Figure 1 and 2). It is located north-west from (Shorea robusta), Rajbrikshya (Cassia fistulosa), Letang Bazaar after crossing the Chisang River, at Jamun (Syzygium cuminii), Odane (Sterculia villosa), Dhimal Danda. It is one of the important wetland of Chatiwan (Alstonia scholaris) etc. Nepal situated on the Chure hill range. There are three ponds namely -Raja, Rani and Chhori The climate of the Churia region ranges from (Rajkumari), located inside the southern part of the subtropical to warm temperature characterized by Sal forest. All these ponds are stretched along north- hot and sub-humid summers, intense monsoon rain, south direction. The largest one is Raja Pokhari and cold dry winters. The average annual minimum (King’s pond) that lies in the west with water depth temperature ranges from 12°-19°C, with the average about 7 m in rainy, 3 m in winter and 2 m in summer annual maximum temperature ranges from 22°-30°C season. East one is Rani Pokhari (Queen’s pond) in this region. The total annual rainfall varies from which has siltation problem, so its depth is minimum of 1,138 mm to the maximum of 2,671 decreasing. Though, its depth is 7 m in rainy, 3 m in mm throughout the Churia (Department of Forest winter and 2 m in summer season.The degraded pond Research and Survey [DFRS] 2014). of the north-east corner is called Chhori Pokhari (Rajkumari pond) which has minimum water depth Algae collection and identification as 2 m in rainy, one half meter in winter and it is Algae were collected three timesat an interval of 3 completely dried in the summer season. months i.e., in Falgun (winter season, sample no. W1 to W12), Jestha (summer season, sample no. The wetland basin extends about 133 ha where as S13 to S24) and Bhadra (rainy season, sample no. three ponds cover only about 20 ha of land R25 to R36) months of 2072/73BS (Table 1).Total surrounding by mixed forest (Figure 2). The Raja- 36 samples were collected from 12 sites i.e., 9 from Rani Community Forest covers about 1700 ha. The Raja pondand 3from Rani pond, more or less at an 7 2020 Journal of Plant Resources Vol.18, No. 1 Figure1: Map of Raja-Rani (Dhimal Pokhari) wetland, Bhogateni, Letang Municipality, Morang, Nepal. Figure 2: Raj, Rani and Rajkumari ponds showing algal sampling sites (1 to 12). 8 2020 Journal of Plant Resources Vol.18, No. 1 equal distance from the peripheral littoral zone of photographs of collection sites were also taken with the pond (Fig. 2). Collection was done by squeezing the help of Canon Digital camera. submerged parts of aquatic macrophytes (Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms, Ceratophyllum demersum Samples were brought to the Phycology Research L., Ottelia alismoides (L.) Pers., Hydrilla verticillata Lab, Department of Botany, Post Graduate Campus, (L.f.) Royle, Pistia stratiotes L., etc.), between 10 Biratnagar. All the samples were screened for green am to 2 pm in the day. The samples were preserved algae under the light microscope and only the in 4% formaldehyde solution in airtight polythene selected samples were further investigated for bottles thentagged and labeled properly indicating taxonomic purpose. For the confirmation of green sample no., sampling site, date of collection etc. and blue-green algae, iodine solution and 1% using permanent marker. Field note was also aqueous methylene blue stains were used. Number maintained accordingly. of algae and their dominancy were observed and calculated. Algal dimension (length, breadth etc.) Field observations were also made to record the was measured with the help of calibrated ocular conditions of wetland and algal habitat in every site. micrometer. Photomicrography was done for each The exact time of sample collection and other taxa under 40X and 100X objectives using Olympus surrounding aquatic and land vegetations of the Ch20i