Author(s)

Dhanya Vijayan¹, Joseph George Ray^2*

¹Environment Science Research Lab, St Berchmans College, Changanacherry, India.
²School of Biosciences, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, India.

Algae are one of the major groups of soil microflora in agricultural lands. Among algae, the bluegreens are considered to be very valuable in agriculture. The role of them in soil fertility enhancement has been extensively studied worldwide. Sustainable utilization of an organism for any human purpose depends on how successfully the ecology of the same is thoroughly understood. Kuttanadu is a unique tropical paddy-wetland. Ecology of blue-green-algae and the exact diversity of the same in the zone remained unexplored. This is the first report of the blue-green-algal community of Kuttanadu in relation to different soil-regions, seasons, and crop-growth-stages. A rich blue-green-algal diversity of 64 species, with Oscillatoriales as the dominants (38%), is observed in these paddy-fields. The highest values for all the ecological parameters analyzed were found in the Lower Kuttanadu soil region, during Virippu season, at panicle stage of the crop whereas the lowest values for most of the parameters were observed in Upper Kuttanadu soils during puncha season at the seedling and panicle stages. The species richness and diversity index showed positive correlation to crop seasons. Apart from the specific soil and climatic factors, the total number of blue green algal isolates showed positive correlation to total nitrogen and phosphorus in the soils.

Blue Green-Algae, Paddy-Wetland, Seasons, Soil-Regions, Growth-Stages

Vijayan, D. and Ray, J. (2015) Ecology and Diversity of Cyanobacteria in Kuttanadu Paddy Wetlands, Kerala, India. American Journal of Plant Sciences, 6, 2924-2938. doi: 10.4236/ajps.2015.618288.