Studies on Autotrophic Components of Periphyton in Some Iranian Aquatic Ecosystems

Periphyton is an essential part of aquatic ecosystems that can remove toxic substances, nutrients and metals from water, and therefore it can be considered as one of the important options in ecotoxicological studies. The aim of this study was to identify the autotrophic periphytic components (APC) in some Iranian aquatic ecosystems and investigate the possibility of its re-culture under in-vitro condition. Limnological (chemical and biological) properties of bed sediments, periphytic biofilms, and water of lakes, such as biological and chemical oxygen demand (BOD and COD), pH, EC, temperature, nitrogen, total and available phosphorous were measured. Then APC of Epixylon and lakes water samples were isolated and purified in their specific culture medium. Based on results, identified genera included a variety of filamentous and single-celled algae, cyanobacteria, and diatoms. In Fashtam Lake, Chlorophyceae, Charophyceae, Euglenozoa, Ochrophyta, Bacillariophyceae, and Cyanobacteria constituted about 38.48