Benjamin Onozeyi Dimowo

Department of Aquaculture and Fisheries Management, College of Environmental Resources Management, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun state, Nigeria
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Aquaculture, 2013, Vol. 3, No. 2   doi: 10.5376/ija.2013.03.0002
Received: 08 Jan., 2013    Accepted: 17 Jan., 2013    Published: 07 Feb., 2013

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Benjamin, 2013, The Phytoplankton Species Composition and Abundance of Ogun River, Abeokuta, Southwestern Nigeria, International Journal of Aquaculture, Vol.3, No.2 4-7 (doi: 10.5376/ija.2013.03.0002)

The phytoplankton species composition and abundance in Ogun River, Ogun state, Southwest Nigeria was studied for a period of seven months (December, 2011-June, 2012), A total of forty-one genera belonging to five taxonomic groups were recorded from Ogun River. The phytoplankton species composition was dominated by Chrysophyta with 15 species consisting of 36.6% followed by Chlorophyta with 14 consisting of 34.1%. This was followed by Cyanophyta (7 species) consisting of 17.1%, Euglenophyta with 3 species consisting of 7.3% and Pyrrophyta with 2 species consisting 4.92%. Cyanophyta was the highest in abundance consisting of 41% while the lowest in abundance was Pyrrophyta consisting of 1.5%. The low phytoplankton abundance and diversity observed in this study must have been caused by the polluted nature of the water due to the anthropogenic activities carried out around its shores The dominance of Cyanophyta in this river is similar to findings from Lake Victoria, Lake Bishoftu, Lake Chaohu and the temple pond of Thirupour.

Phytoplankton species; Abundance; Composition; Southwestern Nigeria; Ogun River