Scientific publications

The article presents the results of a study of periphytic algae in Lake Imandra, Murmansk Region, including information on the species composition, structural features of communities, and quantitative characteristics. The phytoperiphyton comprises 114 species of algae belonging to 7 divisions, 46 families, and 79 genera. Bacillariophyta (55.3 % of the total number of species), Chlorophyta (13.2 %), and Cyanophyta (22.8 %) predominate. The rest of the divisions collectively account for not more than 4% of the total number of species. The composition of the leading families and the floral spectra of the phytoperiphyton were found to depend on the site-specific hydrological conditions. The abundance of periphytic algae in the studied sites varied from 195.2 to 13 010.2 103 cells/cm2, and the biomass from 6.8 to 202.7 mg/cm2. Diatoms form the bulk of both the abundance in most of the studied sites, while biomass is mainly generated by green algae and diatoms. Fourteen species (12.3 %) are classified as dominants, 7 of them dominating in abundance and 12 in biomass, and accounting for 35 to 74 % of the total abundance and for 48 to 81 % of the total biomass. The following groups dominate: in terms of geographic extent – cosmopolites, in relation to salinity – indifferent species, in relation to pH – indifferent and alkaliphilic species, and in relation to habitats – benthic species. Saprobity, based on metrics suggested by Watanabe and Sládeček, is indicative of a moderate level of organic pollution. Overall, these indicators adequately reflect the distribution of algal communities over the river habitats. We found that the distribution of each group ofindicators aligns with the measured physico-chemical variables.