Effect of Industrial Effluent on the Growth of Marine Diatom, Chaetoceros simplex (Ostenfeld, 1901)

The marine centric diatom,Chaetoceros simplex (Ostenfeld, 1901) was exposed to five different concentrations of industrial effluent for 96 hrs to investigate the effect on growth. The physico-chemical parameters viz. colour, odour, temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, pH, alkalinity, hardness, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, inorganic phosphate, total phosphorous, reactive silicate, calcium and magnesium were estimated in the effluent. The Ammonia (326 μg. L-1), Nitrite (19.53 μg. L-1) and Nitrate (471.4 μg. L-1) were observed at higher levels. About 50% of the cell density of C. simplex reached a lesser dilutions of effluent viz. 1:625 and 1:1250 than the control. The highest cell density (14.3 × 104 cell ml-1) was recorded in 1:10000 diluted effluent followed by control and the lowest cell density was observed in 1:625 diluted effluents. From the results, it is evidenced that the lower volume of effluent discharge into higher volume of water could not affect the growth rate of phytoplankton. It is more important that to reduce the effect of pollution and environmental sustainability. @JASEM J. Appl. Sci. Environ. Manage. December, 2010, Vol. 14 (4) 35 - 37