Author(s): Armine Simonyan; Hasmik Mikayelyan
Linked Author(s):
Keywords: River basin; Phytoplankton; Water quality; Bioindication
Abstract: For the Republic of Armenia with continental semi-arid climate water resources have especially important meaning as a social, economic, environmental and political value, especially taking into consideration that about 80% of agricultural production in the country is due to irrigation. The mountainous rivers in Armenia are in most cases quite clean and could be characterized with low biological production. Deeper and relatively slow flowing rivers that are mainly found in Ararat valley were support a higher diversity of water fauna and flora. Water flora and fauna includes a number of living organisms that being an initial link of trophic chain, could reflect overall state of water ecosystem. Phytoplankton community is known as the one of the main characteristics of bioindication of the water ecosystems. The composition and season dynamic of the phytoplankton species, ratio among phytoplankton different groups, as well as the links between phytoplankton biomass and water temperature and concentration of biogenic elements are discussed in the paper.
Year: 2005