Algal Flora of Chilika Lake

The book presets a detail account of algae of Chilika Lake, the largest brackish water lagoon in Asia, in the East coast of India. The algal forms of the lake were collected during the year 1999 to 2001, documented with microphotograph and camera lucida diagrams and identified by us. The taxonomic account of these algal forms has also been prepared. Besides the documentation of algal forms, resource mapping and biomass estimation of economically important algal species in different salinity gradients of the lake was carried out for the first time and presented in this book. Viable protocol for agar-agar extraction from Gracilaria verrucosa occurring in the lake and its possible commercial exploitation is also given. Details of algal forms presented in this book with descriptions, photographs, line diagrams and site of occurrence in Chilika lake can be used as a monograph for future study of algal diversity changes in Chilika lake and other wetlands elsewhere.