Study of the Biodiversity of Free Living Protozoa  from Mumbai Region , Maharashtra.

DR. Umakant Pandharinath Kamble

Volume : II, Issue : III, March - 2013

Study of the Biodiversity of Free Living Protozoa from Mumbai Region , Maharashtra.

Dr. Umakant Pandharinath Kamble

Abstract :

The distribution and abundance of fresh water protozoa is guided like to other microbial communities by a variety of ecological factors. The environmental condition in which ciliate can live and multiply, there is always an optimum range for each group.(Kudo,1966).During the year Dec.2008 to Dec 2011,total 50 water samples were collected of which 20 samples were found to be positive for protozoa and total percentage of prevalence was 40%.The maximum percentage of prevalence was recorded in the month of January, which gradually decreases upto March. In the month of May there was no protozoa recorded from the water samples and hence prevalence reaches to zero.Whereas in summer high temperature and low percentage of ammonical nitrogen, organic nitrogen and oxidizable organic matter have been noted and this affects the ciliate density. The ciliate are more sensitive to pH and chlorinity. It has been also noted that activation energy for multiplication an indicator for temperature dependence of microorganism was higher for protozoa (Finlay B.J. 1988)