ScienceAsia 30 (2004): 261-267 |doi: 10.2306/scienceasia1513-1874.2004.30.261

Diversity of Phytoplankton in the Rama IX Lake, A Man-Made Lake, Pathumthani Province, Thailand

Sirikhae Pongswat,^a* Sompong Thammathaworn,^a Yuwadee Peerapornpisal,^b Nathawut Thanee^a and Charuwan Somsiri^c

ABSTRACT: The study on the diversity of phytoplankton in the Rama IX lake, a man-made lake, Pathumthani province was conducted from February 2000 to January 2001. The lake is divided into two sections, identified by the North Rangsit District Irrigation as the first and the second sections. Phytoplankton found in the first section showed a total number of 86 different taxa, which were divided into 9 taxonomic groups. The taxonomic groups, starting from the most rich in species, were Chlorophyceae with 30, Euglenophyceae with 21, Cyanophyceae with 17, Diatomophyceae with 9, Dinophyceae and Cryptophyceae with 4, Zygnemaphyceae with 3 and Chrysophyceae and Xanthophyceae with1 taxa. In the second section, phytoplankton found were of 59 different taxa. They were divided into 8 taxanomic groups. Chlorophyceae was the group with the most species with 21 species, followed by Cyanophyceae with 12, Euglenophyceae with 11, Diatomophyceae with 9, Cryptophyceae and Dinophyceae with 4, Zygnemaphyceae with 2 and Chrysophyceae with 1. Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii was found to be the dominant species with the highest phytoplankton biovolume throughout the investigation in both sections.

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a School of Biology, Institute of Science, Suranaree University of Technology, Muang District Nakhon Ratchasima 30000, Thailand.
b Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, Muang District Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand.
c Natural Inland Fishery Institute, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Kasetsart University, Chatuchak, Bangkok 10900, Thailand.

* Corresponding author, E-mail: pongswat1_s@hotmail.com

Received 17 July 2003, Accepted 28 May 2004