Role of Nutrients Input Pattern on the Growth Dynamics of Common Freshwater Microalgal Community

Abstract

Most of the microalgae present in aquatic systems competed for the same available inorganic nu-trients. The successful competitors would eventually dominate the rest because of their adaptive advantageous. Based on this premise, it was important to understand the effect of nutrients input rate on microalgal species-diversity and population. This was investigated in batch experiments of 14 days with pond water samples having natural ecosystem by varying nutrients dosing pattern under natural day light. Nutrients were supplied as single dose and multiple doses to the fresh water microalgal culture of fresh water. Prominent growth of many microalgal species was the key result of multiple dosing of nutrients compared to single or concentrated dosing of nutrients. Si-mulation towards oligotrophic condition was supporting the diverse population of microalgae. Whereas in the experiments with higher dosing of nutrients in one or two times had dominant growth of two or three microalgae and higher growth of heterotrophic bacteria. This condition resembled the eutrophic or hyper-eutrophic condition of water. This study thus showed the in-fluence of the nutrients supply pattern on the growth and diversity of microalgae in freshwater and the nutrients added on eight, ten and twelve consecutive days from first day were considered as the effective nutrient addition pattern to promote maximum microalgal population present in a freshwater system.