Taxonomic and Ecological Aspects of Thermophilic Cyanobacteria from Some Geothermal Springs of Jharkhand and Bihar, India

Abstract

IN the present research, we have highlighted the taxonomic and ecological aspects of cyanobacteria, identified from some less-explored geothermal springs of Jharkhand and Bihar in India, with respect to water temperature variations and other physicochemical parameters, which is still an understudied topic. In total, twenty six different cyanoprokaryotes were identified. Based on our observations, the Chatra hot spring of Jharkhand area was found to be rich in cyanobacterial diversity where eight different taxa were reported. Among the recorded taxa, Geitlerinema amphibium, Komvophoron cf. schmidlei, K. jovis and Leptolyngbya granulifera are rare cyanobacterial species with a limited geographical distribution inhabiting the Indian springs based on the previous studies and available literature on the hot springs of India. The correlation of the cyanobacterial species identified and water parameters was studied by redundancy analysis (RDA) under CANOCO 5.0. Moreover, sampling stations were added in the RDA analysis. As a result of the RDA, the total variation was 23,83333, and it is seen that the first two axes explain 47.39% of the total variance. RDA analysis results showed that values of pH, sulfate, and sodium ions were the most effective water factors affecting the distribution of the cyanobacterial taxa identified. Though the water temperature is an important factor controlling the distribution of cyanobacterial taxa inhabiting the thermal water habitats, it was not among the most important abiotic drivers according to the RDA analysis in this work.