Diversity of freshwater algae in some selected sites in river Naguman district Charsadda , Khyber Pakhtunkhwa , Pakistan

In the current research work algal collection was made at different sites of River Naguman near its joining point with Sardaryab. Various sites expected to have rich algal flora across an area of 10 Km were selected to obtain algal samples. A total of 38 species belonging to 16 genera of freshwater algae were collected and identified. Keys were constructed both at generic and specific levels for identifications and description. Out of these 16 genera Chlorophyta contributed 50%, Bacillariophyta 25%, Charophyta 6.25%, Xanthophyta 12.5% and Cyanophyta contributed 6.25% genera. Chlorophyceae were the most common represented by 60.53% species, Bacillariophyceae were next with 18.42% species, Charophyceae by 5.26%, Xanthophyceae by 5.26% and Cyanophyceae were represented by 10.53% species. The most dominant genus in terms of species was Spirogyra with eight species 21.1%. Cladophora and Oscillatoria were next dominants with 10.5% species. Rhizoclonium, Zygnema and Nitzschia were each represented by 7.9%. Closterium, Diatoma and Chara each contributed 5.3% species. All the remaining genera including Ulothrix, Mougeotia, Desmidium, Cyclotella, Tabellaria, Ophiocytium and Vaucheria each contributed 2.6% species.


Introduction
Algal collection was done in some selected sites in River Naguman, District Charsadda.District Charsadda lies between 34-03' and 34-38' north latitudes and 71-28' and 71-53' east longitudes.Charsadda is located in the west of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and is bounded by Malakand District on the north, district Mardan on the east, Nowshera and Peshawar districts on the south and Mohmand Agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas on the west.The district covers an area of 996 square kilometers.
Algae are chlorophyll bearing organisms which are thalliod in nature.Algae are divided into different groups on the basis of characteristic pigments and resulting colours of thalli.Brown algae are the largest type of algae.The brown or yellow-brown colour is due to fucoxanthin.Red algae often have brilliant colours due to phycoerythrin and phycocyanin.
Green algae contain chlorophyll-a and chlorophyll-b in the same proportion as in higher plants

Materials and methods
Fresh algal samples were collected from some selected sites in River Naguman in a 10 Km 2 area selected as the water runs slowly in this area and great algal populations are present.Samples were selected in five sites.Water pH recorded via electric pH meter at different sites ranged from 6.70-7.5 while temperature of water ranged from 15-35 0 C. The samples were collected in spring and summer of the year 2015.These samples were collected from running water, shallow water and standing water [6] in order to get a complete profile of free floating and attached algal forms.Sampling was also done from the bottom of the stream and also from aquatic plants.Five samples were collected from each site.The samples were collected with the help of knife and stored in polythene bags.The samples were analyzed and characterized in the laboratory of Bacha Khan University Charsadda in polythene bags.Algae samples were preserved by storing in glass bottles with 4% formalin.To visualize and characterize algae a portion of the specimen was mounted on the glass slides covered by cover slips and observed under light microscope using different magnifications i.e. 10X, 40X and 100X.Plates of each algal specimen were made by capturing photographs through a digital camera from the respective slide under the highest (100X) power of the microscope; also taken from

Results and discussion
Algae are autotrophic organisms, constitute an important group of thallophyta, so it was desired to work out the diversity of freshwater algae of district Charsadda.A taxonomic study was carried out for the identification of Algae of the research area on the basis of their cytological and morphological features.River Naguman has rich algal flora.Algae have remarkable importance for life on earth surface.Algae play a basic role in different food chains as they are primary producers in almost all types of ecosystems.Algal members are adding fresh oxygen to the atmosphere regularly, contaminated by animals adding CO2.They directly or indirectly serve as food for fish and other aquatic animals  Bacillariophyceae in our research is represented by the species of Diatoma, Nitzschia, Cyclotella and Tabellaria on plate no. 9, 10 and 11 (Figure 2).The results agreed to Sarim and Zaman because this class previously identified by Sarim & Zaman (2005), carried out an extensive study Chrysophyceae from District Charsadda.Similar observations were made in the previous studies at Karachi [13,14].
During the present study the species were found observed in Unicellular, unbranched filamentous, colonial, branched filamentous, pseudo filamentous and mesh like thallus & irregular forms.Seasonal variation of freshwater algae was also noticed, generally green & blue green algae were studied which breed in summer and spring season, but in summer they also survive.Water temperature is important, as the temperature increases the dissolved oxygen content decrease in water due to increase metabolism and respiration.High temperature has a direct effect on growth of algal species and communities and aquatic life.The Dissolved oxygen content of the freshwater dependent on several factors i.e., water movement, pollution, temperature of water, addition of freshwater from other sources, production of oxygen by plants and its consumption by plants, animals and bacteria.In summer, the temperature was high up to 38 ºC tremendous Sunlight and sluggish water was the most favorable environment for growth of algae.The rate of reproduction is very rapid of those species that reproduced in summer and rainy season and created a heavy mass on the surface of water.Their growth was most frequent in the aquatic medium especially in planktonic state as compared to the terrestrial environment.

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. Algal identification and characterization were achieved with the help of Prescott's manual and Tiffany & Britton [6, 7].Aim of the study The aim of the current research work was to identify and characterize various forms of freshwater algae collected from different sites in River Naguman.

Figure 1 .Figure 2 .
Figure 1.Showing contribution of genera and species by each class of algae

Table 1
important to man.Freshwater algae are known to produce a large number of toxic, Noxious and bioactive metabolites, thus rendering it difficult to select one specific test to quantify environmental effects.

Table 1 . Percentage of different classes of freshwater algae of district Charsadda
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