Prevalence of non toxic and harmful algal blooms along Kerala coast

Abstract

The oceans are home to thousands of microscopic algae which constitute the base of the marine food web. These phytoplankton are essential for the production of biomass at all levels of the food web and thus play an important role in ocean’s ecology. Beneficial phytoplankton blooms defined as –‘a 4 Marine Fisheries Information Service T&E Ser., No. 195, 2008 significant population increase during which the bloom and the subordinate species within the community have equivalent ecological and physiological valence’, are thus intrinsically beneficial to food web processes as they channel carbon or energy into the marine food web.