Species diversity and ecological features of the Voronezh reservoir algae

The work is devoted to the long-term study of the species diversity and ecological features of the Voronezh reservoir algae. The algological study revealed 228 species of algae belonging to 7 divisions, 14 classes, 38 orders, 60 families and 99 genera. Most species belong to the departments Bacillariophyta (110 species), Chlorophyta (60) and Cyanophyta (34). It has been established that most of the algae of the water reservoir have unicellular and colonial types of organization, spherical, pear-shaped or filamentous structures of the thallom, there are flagellar stages in life cycles. The largest number of taxa belongs to the groups of β-mesosaprobionts (74), xenosaprobionts and oligo-β-mesosaprobionts (29). Planktonic algae are more common in the water reservoir (116), while benthic (62) and «periphytic» (50) are less common. The main factors contributing to the «blooming» of water in the Voronezh reservoir are shallow waters, discharge of untreated sewage and stormwater, elevated temperature. To solve this problem the following measures are proposed: a competent and systematic approach to reducing the pollution of the water reservoir, development of effective methods for regulating water quality, reducing the proportion of anthropogenic load on the reservoir, increasing the number of aquatic fauna, development of safe methods to improve the condition of the water area.