Distribution of phytoplankton abundance in Thermocline layers of Sangihe Talaud Island, Indonesia

The aim of this study was to determine the abundance of phytoplankton in the thermocline layer of Sangihe Talaud Islands The research was conducted in stations in October and the samples were taken at the thermocline depth using a rosette sampler as much as L Environmental parameter namely temperature salinity and depth was measured using the SBE Plus CTD Conductivity Temperature Depth The water samples were concentrated into ml using plankton net with mesh size micro m The phytoplankton enumeration was conducted using the Sedgwick Rafter Cell Counter under a x magnification microscope and identified to the species level Mapping of the phytoplankton abundance temperature and salinity in form of contours was conducted by Surfer software and the similarities among stations were analyzed based on the Bray Curtis index using Biodiversity Pro Ver software The result showed there were species found during sampling with an abundance of cellm The highest abundance was observed to be as a result of warm water temperatures while low abundance were observed in some stations due to the presence of high salinity level Based on the Bray Curtis index pairs of stations had a similarity gt This was associated with the general similarities found in the community