Investigation of species diversity and abundance of phytoplankton in shrimp culture ponds of Gomishan-southeast Caspian Sea

Abstract Beside knowledge on primary production and food webs, species composition and density of phytoplankton in shrimp culture ponds are an important issue in relation with shrimp diets and production in the ponds. In order to provide an updated information about phytoplankton community in shrimp culture ponds, this study was carried out to determine species composition and abundance of phytoplanktons in shrimp culture ponds of Gomishan (South East Caspian Sea) at three defined points in each pond (near the inlet, middle, near the outlet) on a monthly basis sampling from May to October 2016. Sampling was performed using 1 liter volumes in surface water ponds. The results showed that there are a total of 23 genus phytoplankton belonging to 6 phylum. The dominant genus were Nitzschia from Bacillariophyta, Peridinium from Dinophyta, Aphanotece and Anabena from Cyanophyta and Chlamydomonas from Chlorophyta. Generally the dominant genus included 66% of total abundance of phytoplankton community. The highest average density observed was Dinophyta phylum with 50%, and the lowest was Cryptophyta and Euglenophyta phylums with 1% of total phytoplankton abundance. The both highest and lowest abundance of phytopanktons were observed in the intermediate ponds.