Morphological Studies of Six species of Genus...

Morphological Studies of Six species of Genus Nitzschia from Udhampur district of Jammu and Kashmir

Author Name : Sumiksha Thakur

ABSTRACT

This paper describes Nitzschia species from Udhampur district in Jammu province of Union territory of J&K. Udhampur is situated in the slopes from PirPanjal range in the north to the Jammu Shiwalik range in the south. The terrain is mostly hilly. It is situated at an altitude of 756 metres (2480 feet). During the present studies six water bodies both lentic and lotic, of Udhampur district were scanned and six different species of Nitzschia were observed from these after making collections randomly.Water samples collected from different habitats were also analysed with respect to various physicochemical parameters.Nitzschia was found as planktonic as well as epiphytic forms. Peculiar morphological features like shape, keel position, keel punctae, striae were studied. The six species of Nitzschia which were identified from these water bodies are Nitzschia rectaHantzsch,Nitzschiathermaliskutz. v. capitataGandhi,NitzschiadenticulaGrun. v. curtaGrun,Nitzschiasinuata (W. Sm.) Grun. v. tabellariaGrun.,Nitzschiavitrea Norman.and Nitzschia fasciculataGrun. Various shapes of Nitzschia were observed from these water bodies and there was variation in other morphological features as well.

Keywords: Bacillariophyceae, Nitzschia, Keel, Striae, Frustule