Original Research Article
Year: 2020 | Month: July | Volume: 7 | Issue: 7 | Pages: 455-471
Limnological Studies of Gombe Abba River, Dukku Local Government Area of Gombe State, Nigeria
Mohammed Halima Baba1, Haruna Saidu1, Usman Umar Faruk2, Alkali Alhassan2
1Department of Biological Sciences, Gombe State University, Gombe, Nigeria
2Department of Biological Sciences, Yobe State University Damaturu, Nigeria.
Corresponding Author: Usman Umar Faruk
ABSTRACT
Phytoplankton and Zooplanktons species constitute an important step of food chain in Lake Ecosystem but the increase in the use of excessive agricultural chemical possess a thread to their availability. This thus necessitates the need to study the occurrence and distribution of plankton species in Gombe-Abba River with a view to determine their relationship with physicochemical parameters. Four sampling stations were chosen for the study. Phytoplankton and Zooplankton were sampled from the reservoir with the aid of plankton net. Physicochemical characteristics of the water were measured in situ fortnightly. These parameters include air Temperature, water temperature, pH, Electrical conductivity, Total dissolved solid, Turbidity, Dissolved Oxygen and their various results were found to be at ranged between 32.62-33.330C, 25.55-260C, 7.13-7.67, 114.3-116.6, 61.51-63.46mg/L, 5.01-5.27mg/L, 4.69-4.76mg/L respectively, while Biological oxygen Demand, Nitrates, and Phosphates ranged between 2.05-2.12, 14.73-15.19mg/L, 10.95-11.63 mg/L respectively. A total of 2546 phytoplankton were identified consisting of four genera which are Baccillariophyta Chlorophyta, Cyanophyta and Euglenophyta occurring as the dominant phytoplankton species observed during the study time. Baccillariophyta has 1037 individuals accounting for 40.73% of the total population of phytoplankton followed by Chlorophyta 28.40% Cyanophyta 19.17% Euglenophyta with 11.7%. The Simpson’s species diversity index for the four phytoplankton taxa Baccillariophyta, Chlorophyta, Cyanophyta and Euglenophyta were found to be 0.1658, 0.0805, 0.0367 and 0.0134 respectively while the Margalef indexes of genera richness were 6.3605, 4.2404, 3.5336 and 1.4134 respectively. A total of 1058 zooplankton encompass of 15 numbers of genera amongst the three zooplankton taxa of Cladocera, Copepoda and Rotifers were determined. The Rotifers were the most abundant zooplankton taxon comprising 43.67% of the zooplankton abundance followed by Copepoda with 31.29% and Cladocera with 25.05%. The Simpson’s species diversity index for the three zooplankton taxa of Cladocera, Copepoda and Rotifera were, 0.0626, 0.0977 and 0.1905 respectively while the Margalef index of genera richness of Cladocera, Copepoda and Rotifera were 2.5508, 2.5508 and 5.1016 respectively. Study of composition and abundance of plankton were found to vary with the variation in the physicochemical parameters suggesting that the river is moderately polluted.
Keywords: Limnological, Gombe AbbaRiver.
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