Algal Diversity of Loktak Lake, Manipur

One hundred and five taxa belonging to 40 genera were recorded from different sites of Loktak lake. Out of these 6 species belong to 4 genera of Cyanophyceae, 2 species to a genus of Euglenophyceae, 90 species to 28 genera of Chlorophyceae, 1 species to a genus of Charophyceae and 6 species to 6 genera of Bacillariophyceae. The number of Chlorophyceae was about 80% of the total algal taxa. The members of Desmids (Zygnematales) are more diversified amounting to 87% of Chlorophyceae. In 2007 during suvey of Loktak lake, 85 additional algal forms were recorded from this habitat. However, several algal taxa reported earlier in the lake were not observed in the present study.