Locally Calibrated Algal Indicators and a Five-Metric Bio-monitoring Index for Tropical Monsoonal Water Bodies: Limitations of Palmer's and Nygaard's Indices in Vidarbha, India
Keywords:
bioassessment; indicator species; Palmer's index; Nygaard's quotients; trophic state index; phytoplankton; MaharashtraAbstract
Temperate algal pollution and trophic indices are routinely applied to Indian water bodies without local testing. This study checked Palmer's genus pollution index, Nygaard's phytoplankton quotients and Carlson's trophic state index against measured water quality in six reservoirs, tanks and ponds of Amravati District, Maharashtra, and used the same data set to build a locally calibrated bio-monitoring index. Littoral and open-water stations were sampled monthly from July 2024 to June 2026 (288 samples). Palmer's score put 61.1 per cent of samples in the high organic pollution class, yet it ranked the perennial lake (27.73) and the irrigation tank (26.17) above the urban tank (19.83), which had the lowest oxygen and highest oxygen demand. Nygaard's quotients calculated from pooled species lists were identical at every site and season (compound quotient 5.00), and sample-level quotients could not be calculated for the 32.3 per cent of samples that contained no desmids. Carlson's chlorophyll-based index ranked the sites correctly, from mesotrophic (S1, mean 49.25) to hypereutrophic (S5, 72.65), but non-algal turbidity raised its Secchi-based counterpart by 8.07 units in the monsoon. Indicator value analysis with a cross-year consistency test identified nine enrichment indicators led by Euglena viridis and Microcystis aeruginosa, and eleven low-enrichment indicators led by Volvox aureus, Closterium moniliferum and Pinnularia gibba. A five-metric index built from cyanobacterial share, Shannon diversity, pollution-tolerant taxa, Zygnematophyceae share and chlorophyll-based trophic state correlated strongly with phosphate-P (ρ = 0.894) and BOD (ρ = 0.882), although neither variable enters its calculation. At five of the six sites it placed 79 to 98 per cent of samples in the expected class.
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