Checklist of tropical algae of Togo in the Guinean Gulf of West-Africa

The phytoplankton is an important part of the biodiversity and one of the bases of food networks of freshwater, brackish and marine environments. This study is carried out to record the algae flora (microalgae and macroalgae) in Togo regarding the floristic diversities. The results show that 795 species of microalgae have been recorded in Togo belonging to 134 families, nineteen groups among which the most important in terms of number of species are the Bacillariophyceae (26%), Cyanophyceae (17%), Chorophyceae (16%), Conjugatophyceae (12%) and Euglenophyceae (11%). The microalgae of Togo belong to 7 Divisions which are respectively Chromophyta (39%), Chlorophyta (32%), Cyanophyta (17%), Euglenophyta (11%), and Rodophyta (1%). More than 250 genera were recorded and the most represented genera are Navicula, Nitzschia, Scenedesmus, Trachelomonas, Closterium, Cosmarium, Oscillatoria, Phacus, Pinnularia, Staurastrum, Strombomonas, Lyngbya that cover 31% of microalga of Togo. For the macroalgae, 37 taxons were collected in total. Three Divisions of the macroalgae notably the Chlorophyta, Pheophyta and Rhodophyta are the most represented. The dominant species are from the Chlorophyta Division. These studies are still ongoing to improve the knowledge about the biodiversity of the aquatic environments algae in Togo.   Key words: Guinean Gulf, Togo, aquatic ecosystem, phytoplankton, microalgae, macroalgae.