Using Phytoplankton as Tools to Assess the Health of Aquatic Bodies and Ecosystems

Abstract

The cost of exponential development and population booms around the world is an increase in the level of anthropogenic pollution of natural resources, and this calls for scientists and government agencies to find resourceful and cost-effective methods of monitoring the health of these resources and their ecosystems. Given their unique, yet fundamental position in the food web and the biogeochemical cycles in nature, this paper proposes that phytoplankton can be effective bioindicators and biomonitors of ecological and environmental health. Plankton play an enormous role in the biological processing of organic matter and therefore act as an early warning signs of change in water quality. They can also predict the cumulative effect of pollutants on living organisms and can detail early on the bioaccumulation of toxicants along the food chain. In this study, we compare the advantages of integrating biological tools with the traditional suite of ecological health assessment tools, i.e., chemical and physical assays, and discuss the features and limitations of the current applications of phytoplankton in bioindication. While phytoplankton add important dimensions like bioavailabiltiy and biotoxicity to environmental risk assessment, further research is needed to better correlate the physiological and community responses with the environmental stressors causing them in the first place.