Taxonomic Survey of Phytoplankton in Manasbal Lake of Kashmir Himalaya, India

The current study was conducted over a two-year study period at Manasbal Lake, which has a catchment area of 22 km2 and is located in the district of Ganderbal, 30 kilometers north of the city of Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir. The Manasbal catchment is defined by latitudes 34°14' - 34°16' N and longitudes 74°40' - 74°43' E, with an elevation of approximately 1551m a.s.l. During the present study, 101 phytoplankton species from six groups were identified from Manasbal Lake: Bacillariophyceae, Chlorophyceae, Cyanophyceae, Chrysophyceae, Dinophyceae, and Euglenophyceae. Among these, Bacillariophyceae formed the bulk of phytoplankton with 49 species, followed by Chlorophyceae (39), Cyanophyceae (7), Euglenophyceae (3), Dinophyceae (2) and Chrysophyceae (1). The Bacillariophyceae, the dominant group, was present at all six sites with the maximum diversity of species.

Interpreting Proteobacteria diversity through 16S rRNA analysis in Manasbal Lake, Kashmir

Bacterial community composition in aquatic ecosystems is of renewed interest for its health as well as the people living in the adjoining areas, and the current work on a freshwater ecosystem in Kashmir Himalayas–the Manasbal Lake was carried out in this backdrop. Water samples were collected from various sampling stations, selected as the zones of special ecological interest and according to the degree of difference in the anthropogenic intrusions in the lake. For identification, the isolated bacterial colonies were subjected to morphological and biochemical characterization, which were further confirmed by targeting their 16S rRNA gene, using 27F and 1492R as the universal bacterial primers. Major bacterial phylum, thus isolated, was proteobacteria with 15 different bacterial species belonging to class alpha-proteobacteria, beta-proteobacteria, and gammaproteobacteria. However, the most diverse class isolated was Alphaproteobacteria comprising seven species followed by Betaproteobacteria comprising six species and Gamma-proteobacteria comprising only two species. The distribution of the bacterial group was seen influenced on a Spatio-temporal scale with the maximum density observed during summer and minimum during winter, further the load was highest for littoral sampling stations in comparison to the open water sites. Proteobacteria are important since they perform basic functions in global transformations of elements. But at the same time, they show close interaction with eukaryotes, both as pathogens and as symbionts.

Comparative Physico-Chemical Limnology of Two Lakes of Kashmir Himalaya

In the present paper an effort has been made to evaluate the trophic status of two lakes viz; Dal Lake and Manasbal Lake on the basis of physico-chemical parameters criterion. Four ecologically different habitats in each lake were selected for the present study i.e DL1-DL4 & MS1-MS4 in Dal and Manasbal Lake respectively. The rate of pollution in both the lakes varied from basin to basin as well as lake to lake. It has been observed that both lakes are subjected to anthropogenic stress in the form of nutrient enrichment which changes the overall trophic status of both the lakes. However, the stress is more pronounced in Dal Lake as compared to Manasbal Lake which shows higher pollution levels as depicted by physico-chemical parameters. While the rural lake (Manasbal) is marching towards high trophic nature as a result of heavy influx of nutrients from the catchment area, the urban valley lake (Dal) operating under tremendous anthropogenic pressures receives heavy load of pollutants leading to its rapid trophic evolution in the form of eutrophication.