Phytoplankton population and its indices in aras dam reservoir

Sampling was conducted seasonally from three stations (A1- upstream; A2- intermediate; A3- downstream) along reservoir from June 2007 to March 2008. Phytoplankton population changes were investigated in order to calculate phytoplankton indices in each site. In the present study, 46 algal species were determined. These were belonged to five classes: Diatoms (Bascillariophyta); green algae (Chlorophyta); blue-green algae (Cyanophyta); Pyrrophyta and Euglenophyta. The water quality in sampling sites was studied based on the more utilized ecological indices such as Index of Dominance, Richness, Shannon-Wiener species Diversity index and evenness index. The lowest values of Species diversity index was observed in the summer. Evenness index showed the lowest values during summer and higher values in the spring. The present study revealed that Aras Dam reservoir is eu-hypertroph water.