Biological Assessment of Water Pollution Using Periphyton Productivity: A Review

Periphyton is an entire community of organisms and its productivity is quite significant in relation to total primary production, which is often equal to or exceeding as biomass (ash free dry weight) in terms of phytopigment content (chlorophyll-a) to assess water pollution. Productivity is caused by increased nutrient enrichment due to sewage and agro-industries. Periphyton is useful as biological indicator of water pollution. Several biotic and abiotic environmental factors are affected due to periphyton growth. Its growth depends upon some factors such as temperature, light, pH, DO and nutrients (N and P). Productivity is often limited by nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) availability as periphyton use N compounds and phosphorus for their growth. Chlorophyll-a alone is an inadequate predictor of the relative contribution of different algal communities to the total primary production. Periphyton production is associated with various factors and can be evaluated by physico-chemical, chlorophyll and biomass estimation and causes several deleterious effects to water quality.