Spatio-temporal distribution of phytoplankton in the Maralol and Salawatlol River on Salawati Island, Sorong Regency, West Papua

Abstract

Maralol and Salawatlol River in southern Salawati Island, Sorong, West Papua receive tile as waste of upstream mining activities. The organic and inorganic materials in the waste could influence community structure of phytoplankton. The aim of this research was to study the relationship between plankton community and water quality. Research was conducted from 2010 to 2015 with six months sampling interval at ten sites that was separated into two temporal group. Spatial analysis was conducted to map the distribution pattern of plankton using ArcGIS 10.1 with IDW (Inverse Distance Weighted) interpolation method. There were 65 genera from six groups of phytoplankton community in Maralol River and 44 genera from five groups in Salawatlol River. There was different dominant phytoplankton group of each river at the first temporal cluster Chlorophyceae in Maralol and Cyanophyceae in Salawatlol. Furthermore, the dominant group at the second period was Cyanophyceae. The β diversity value in Maralol showed turn over condition or more variative than the Salawatlol that showed a nestedness condition. As a whole, the community of phytoplankton was highly correlated to several parameters of water quality, the TSS and dissolved inorganic nitrogen.