The Suape Industrial Port Complex (Pernambuco-Brazil) constructed between 1979/84 modified the ecology of the area, causing great impacts in the Ipojuca River. In order to assess the impacts on the phytoplankton community comparing with previous studies, samples were obtained at one fixed station in August/90 (rainy season) and in January/91 (dry season). Collections were made in a nyctemeral cycle, every 2 hours by the fraction method and with a plankton net 65 µm mesh size. Hydrological data were collected simultaneously. 97 taxa were identified and the most frequent at both studied period were: Oscillatoria princeps, Chaetoceros lorenzianus, Climacosphenia moniligera and Licmophora abbreviata. Phytoplankton densities ranged from 142,000 cells.l-1 to 1,789,000 cells.l-1 predominating the nanoplankton fraction, being higher in the dry season, during periods of intense sunlight and flood tide. Species diversity was high (> 3 bits.cel.l-1), explained by the environment heterogeneity. The phytoplankton community changed after port construction. Now, there are many littoral species due to the shallow depth and high hydrodinamism of the area and a decrease of 70% in cell density compared to the results obtained before port construction where predominated planktonic species and higher number of cells liter.
Phytoplankton; ecology; nyctemeral variation; impact
