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Phytoplankton in coastal waters are important for the evaluation of either biodiversity or environmental impacts because of this highly vulnerable ecosystem. Seasonal and annual changes in the phytoplankton community structure in Quang Ngai waters during the period 2015 to 2019 were analyzed to assess the phytoplankton diversity and reveal possible causes of these changes. A total of 366 phytoplankton taxa belonging to 10 classes were identified throughout this present study. The highest species number was found in 2019 with 295 taxa, followed by those in 2015 (247), 2017 (185), and 2018 (99). The waters of Ly Son transect showed the highest diversity and most stable phytoplankton communities in both dry and rainy seasons, whereas the stations of Quang Ngai coast revealed high variability of the communities. All diversity indices including Margalef, Pielou, Shannon, Simpson did not reflect well differences in average values but a certain degree of variances, indicating possible environmental impacts. During the study time, there were blooms of certain diatom species including Skeletonema spp. in 2015 and Pseudo-nitzschia spp. in 2019. Analysis of a diatoms index, Centric/Pennate ratio, indicated that the waters were in eutrophic status with a decreasing trend from the coast area to Ly Son island in 2015 and 2019. This research built up fundamental data on phytoplankton communities for Quang Ngai province. The Centric/Pennate diatom index and diversity would be used as indicators for environmental changes and their values provided warning of eutrophication in this coastal waters including the water surrounding Ly Son island.

Although there were a number of studies on the section Oceanica of the genus Protoperidinium, most of the published figures did not well revealed the clear features of the anterior intercalary plates. In this paper, Protoperidinium carum was re-described in details of cell morphology, plate patterns and thecal ornamentation, especially the second anterior intercalary plate (2a) is wide pentagonal instead of hexagonal type as in the previous descriptions. This species was illustrated with line drawing, light and scanning electron microscope photographs. P. carum was newly recorded in Southeast Asia and Vietnamese waters.

Data on characteristics of phytoplankton communities is important scientific information in marine ecosystem, especially in assessment of environmental impacts on biodiversity in a specific waters. In the present study, two-year phytoplankton data was analyzed for species diversity, community structure changes and variation in 4 adjacent waters: Lower Thu Bon river (TB), transition waters (CT), Cu Lao Cham island (CLC) and offshore site (BM) to provide basic scientific data of phytoplankton communities, compare and assess seasonal changes and possible linkage of these adjacent waters. A total of 364 phytoplankton taxa of 12 classes were identified, showing high diversity and with seasonal variation of the investigated waters. There was strong difference of phytoplankton communities among the adjacent waters with low similarity index and the change of dominant species seasonally in each area. The species richness and diversity in the lower Thu Bon river were lower than in other areas. Variation of phytoplankton abundance and diversity along the river transect showed changes in species composition between the dry and rainy seasons but with similar trend in abundance. The low community similarity between the adjacent waters and the transition waters may indicate low impacts of river flow on phytoplankton communities in the coastal waters.

Studies on dinoflagellate cysts provide important knowledge on the ecology of dinoflagellates and harmful algal blooms (HABs). In this study, distribution and abundance of dinoflagellate cysts in surface sediments from 17 stations at Van Phong Bay were analyzed. There were 55 different types of cysts representing 3 orders and 18 genera, and 8 unidentified cyst types recorded. Peridiniales was the most diverse order with 29 cyst types, including 20 Protoperidinium cyst types. There were 10 cyst types of 7 potential toxic dinoflagellate species and 4 of bloom forming species found, indicating a potential risk of harmful algal blooms in Van Phong Bay. Number of cyst types and density ranged from 12 to 31 types and from 115 to 3,760 per gram of dry weight sediment, respectively. Cysts of Leonella granifera were dominant at stations in the mouth of the Bay, while Scrippsiella trochoidea cysts dominated at all stations. Shannon diversity index (H') was low, varying from 1.192.72. There were two distinct cyst assemblages identified with 40% Bray-Curtis similarity, assemblage I with 2 stations (VP09 and VP10), and assemblage II with the other stations.

Minusculum (Lebour) Balech is one of four subgenera of the genus Protoperidinium Bergh 1881. Only five species of this subgenus have been discovered worldwide, most of which are distributed in cold waters. In this study, Protoperidinium anomaloplaxum (Balech) Balech is reported from Vietnam and thus for the first time from Asia-Pacific waters. This species is illustrated with line drawing, light and scanning electron microscopic photographs and described details of the ornamentation of the thecal plates as well as its geographic distribution.

Tintinnidsarean important protozoan group in the aquatic food web and had been widely studied in various waters. There are about 1000 known species in the world. However, there have beenvery few taxonomic studies in Vietnam and therefore the number of Tintinnid taxa and their distribution are poorly known. Thepresent study documents 65 tintinnids species belonging to 30 genera and 13 families in samples collected from Khanh Hoa - Binh Thuan waters in 2016 and 2017. There were 17 new taxa records for Vietnam protozoan fauna, raising the number of tintinnids recorded in Vietnam to 125 taxa. Tintinnid assemblages in Khanh Hoa-Binh Thuan waters shared about 17 species with Ha Long Bay, 32 species with Con Co island and 26 species with coastal waters of South Vietnam. Analysis of species diversity shows that the Shannon diversity index H' varied from 1.5 to 2.6. Distribution of species numbers and diversity in the Khanh Hoa - Binh Thuan waters revealed possible combined effects of hydrographical activities (e.g. upwelling), Mekong river influent (e.g. salinity), and food available on tintinnid communities. Citation: Nguyen Thi Kieu, Phan Tan Luom, Nguyen Tam Vinh, Nguyen Ngoc Lam, Josepth P. Montoya, Doan Nhu Hai, 2017. Biodiversity of Tintinnids (Tintinnida) in Khanh Hoa - Binh Thuan waters. Tap chi Sinh hoc, 39(4): 421-433. DOI: 10.15625/0866-7160/v39n4.11033. *Corresponding author:haidoan-ion@planktonviet.org.vn Received 19 September 2017, accepted 12 December 2017