Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary, situated in the north-eastern part of Kendrapada district of Odisha, India, spreads over an area of about 672 sq. km. Within the sanctuary, an area of approximately 145 sq.km. is designated as Bhitarkanika National Park and obtained the status of a Ramsar site on 19th August 2002. It is the second largest mangrove ecosystem of India consisting of huge mangrove forests, river deltas, estuaries, backwaters and mud flats etc. They serve as the base of an elaborate and productive food web in this extraordinarily diverse estuarine ecosystem. The present investigation aims at enumeration and ultrastructural examination of certain diatom taxa collected as a part of our ongoing studies on diatom diversity of major areas of Bhitarkanika national park viz. Dangmal, Kalibhanjdian, Khola, Bhitarkanika and Ragarapatia. The present paper reports the occurrence of three diatom species namely, Navicula subrostellata Hustedt, Navicula torneensis Cleve and Caloneis oregonica (Ehrenberg) R.M. Patrick belonging to order Naviculales under the family Naviculaceae from Bhitarkanika National Park as the new distributional records from India based on examination of morphological features and ultrastructure through scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Occurrence of these 3 diatom species in Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary is of considerable phytogeographical significance and important addition to the checklist of least-explored diatom flora of this important mangrove habitat.
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