Algae as Environmental Biotechnological Tool for Monitoring Health of Aquatic Ecosystem

Increased pressure on the freshwater ecosystems caused by human activities is a communal concern. Assessing the status of the ecosystem is necessary for the existence of aquatic ecosystems. Inspecting fluctuations in algal communities provides an understanding of the changes occurring in the system. Information of algal population dynamics can help to construct operative management strategies for aquatic ecosystems. Commonly used biomonitoring approaches include presence/absence of algal groups, diversity indices, multimetric approaches and use of phytoplankton functional groups. Among these techniques, multimetric approaches and functional groups are most frequently used to estimate the health of aquatic ecosystem.