PROTOZOA ECOLOGY AND ITS DISTRIBUTION IN A SEMI-URBAN AREA IN THE CENTRAL PLAIN OF THAILAND

MOOKDA SOOKSMARN

ABSTRACT: This paper attempted to study the structure of protozoa communities as well as their organization. An artificial substrate in the form of polyurethane foam was used to attract as many as 165 species in 87 genera of protozoa in natural water ways of Thammasat University, Rungsit campus situated in a semi-urban area in the central plain of Thai/and. A 2x2 chi-square method of interspecific association analysis of 13,530 pairs of protozoa species and the Shannon-Weiner method of diversity index analysis were made. The results showed that the percentage distribution of the three types of stations sampling units was 37.05%, 43.35% and 19.60% for (+), (-), and (0) types, respectively. Similarly, in the case of periods sampling units the percentage distribution was 41.45%, 37.87% and 20.68% for (+), (-), and (0) types, respectively. It is obvious that the results from both cases show no significant difference for the species which are present and absent in all sampling units which is considered indeterminant (type (0)). As for the diversity index, it was found that the mean value calculated from each station ranged from 1.108 to 1.334 with a standard deviation from 0.11 to 0.34. The maximum deviation was found at station Number 5 which has a large open water surface. It could be concluded from this study that protozoa communities in different areas of Thammasat University, Rungsit campus, were not made up of different aggregation of species.

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Department of Environmental Science, Faculty of Science and Technology, Thammasat University, Rungsit Campus, Patumtanee 12121, Thailand.

Received October 26, 1995