The book , ‘An Introduction to Phytoplanktons - Diversity and Ecology’ is very useful as it covers wide aspects of phytoplankton study including the general idea about cyanobacteria and algal kingdom. It contains different topics related to very basic idea of phytoplanktons such as, types ,taxonomic description and the key for identification etc. Together with it, very modern aspects of phytoplankton study including different methodologies needed for research students of botany, ecology, limnology and environmental biology are also included.
The first chapter is very basic and informative and describes algal and phytoplankton classification, algal pigments, algal bloom and their control, algal toxins, wetlands algae, ecological significance of phytoplanktons etc. A general key for identification of common phytoplankton genera is also included for students who will be able to identify these genera based on the light microscopic characters.
In Chapters 2-4,different aspects of phytoplankton research like primary productivity, community pattern analysis and their ecological parameter analysis have been discussed with detailed procedures. Statistical analysis is also discussed in detail.
Chapter 5 includes case studies related to review, phytoplankton diversity and dynamics.
Dr. Ruma Pal did her MSc and PhD from University of Calcutta. Presently, she is Associate Professor in Botany, Department of Botany, University of Calcutta, India. She is the sole teacher of Phycology in this university. She has more than 25 years of research experience in Phycology. Her research interest is related to various fields of algal biotechnology, related to Phycoremediation, aquaculture, bio-fuel production and nanotechnology, etc. Algal diversity study, phytoplankton dynamics and ecological modeling are also the areas of her interest. She has already conducted more than 15 research projects in the field of algal application and has published more than 50 papers in refereed journals.
Dr. Avik Kumar Choudhury completed his post graduation from Banaras Hindu University in Botany in 2004. Subsequently, he worked as a UGC Project Fellow at Department of Botany, University of Calcutta. He completed his doctoral work from the same institute and received his Ph.D degree in2011. Presently, he is working as a DBT (Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India) Postdoctoral Research Associate at Department of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research.
