Phytoplankton community characteristics in the coastal waters of the southeastern Arabian Sea

Remote sensing applications are important in the fisheries sector and efforts were on to improve the predictions of potential fishing zones using ocean color. The present study was aimed to investigate the phytoplankton dynamics and their absorption properties in the coastal waters of the southeastern Arabian Sea in different seasons during the year 2010 to 2011. The region exhibited 73 genera of phytoplankton from 19 orders and 41 families. The numerical abundance of phytoplankton varied from 14.235×103 to 55.075×106 cells/L. Centric diatoms dominated in the region and the largest family identified was Thalassiosiraceae with main genera as Skeletonema spp., Planktionella spp. and Thalassiosira spp. Annual variations in abundance of phytoplankton showed a typical one-peak cycle, with the highest recorded during premonsoon season and the lowest during monsoon season. The species diversity index of phytoplankton exhibited low diversity during monsoon season. Phytoplankton with pigments Chlorophyll a, Chlorophyll b, Chlorophyll c, peridinin, diadinoxanthin, fucoxanthin, β-carotene and phycoerythrobilin dominated in these waters. The knowledge on phytoplankton dynamics in coastal waters of the southeastern Arabian Sea forms a key parameter in bio-optical models of pigments and productivity and for the interpretation of remotely sensed ocean color data.