The effect of physical and chemical factors on the species diversity, distribution and density of BLUE-GREEN ALGAE was examined along the Nour shore of the Caspian Sea. Sampling was conducted seasonally during four sam-pling campaigns along four transects (A, B, C, D) each bearing three sampling sites (from 1 to 3) in February, May, July and November 2014. As a result, 13 species of Cyanophyta division belonging to nine genera were identified. The highest cyanophyte cell density was observed in summer, when 38×10 5 cellsl-1 was observed. However, the results of variance analysis illustrated there is no significant differences between Shannon’ s diversity index in different seasons (P<0. 05 and F=0. 521). The spatial distribution of BLUE-GREEN ALGAE was non-uniform along the shore in the study area, but, along transects, the results proved that the highest density was usually at the first station of each transects, except C. The most favorable conditions for BLUE-GREEN species growth were in late spring and summer, when the water temperature increased. In addition, the environmental variables such as salinity and nutrients, especially, phosphates affect the species diversity, distribution and density of BLUE-GREEN ALGAE in the investigated area according to the Pearson correlation and linear regression.

Sampling was conducted seasonally from three stations (A1- upstream; A2-intermediate; A3- downstream) along reservoir from June 2007 to March 2008.Phytoplankton population changes were investigated in order to calculate phytoplankton indices in each site. In the present study, 46 algal species were determined. These were belonged to five classes: Diatoms (Bascillariophyta); green ALGAE (Chlorophyta); bluegreen ALGAE (Cyanophyta); Pyrrophyta and Euglenophyta. The water quality in sampling sites was studied based on the more utilized ecological indices such as Index of Dominance, Richness, Shannon-Wiener species Diversity index and evenness index.The lowest values of Species diversity index was observed in the summer. Evenness index showed the lowest values during summer and higher values in the spring. The present study revealed that Aras Dam reservoir is eu-hypertroph water.

Coral reefs function in a symbiotic relationship with dinoflagellates (zooxanthellae). Continuous release of anthropogenic pollutants, mainly into the aquatic environments, and the resulting global climate change threatens coral health by endangering this symbiotic relationship. The object of this study is to measure the zooxanthellae density in Poritescompressa to estimate health of coral reefs in the Northern part of Nay Band Bay in the vicinity of the South Pars Petrochemical facilities and southern part of Nay Band Bay farther away from these industrials. Corals in the north of Nay Band Bay showed more signs of degradation. The highest mean zooxanthellae density was 3607849±229894 N/cm2 in south of Nay Band Bay in February. Mean zooxanthellae density was significantly (p<0.05) higher in the south of Nay Bad Bay in February than other months, indicating healthier corals at this region.

In order to investigate the effect of inorganic selenium replacement with organic selenium from Spirulina ALGAE on performance and breast meat quality of broilers, a total of 160 one-day-old chicks were used in a completely randomized design with four treatments, eight replicates and five birds per each replicate. The sources of selenium used included sodium selenite and organic selenium from Spirulina ALGAE which were replaced at two levels of 50 and 100 percent. The organic selenium was produced by the culture of Spirulina ALGAE and its enrichment with selenium. The selenium content of different treatments was measured by ICP-Mass method. In this experiment, the feed intake and body weight gain parameters were measured weekly and feed conversion ratio was calculated. At 42 day of age, one bird was slaughtered from each replicate and the weight of carcass ready to cook was measured. The breast meat was sampled for measurement of pH and selenium storage. The results showed that it was not observed any significant difference in performance traits and ready to cook carcass percentage among different treatments. There was no significant difference in breast muscle pH at 0 and 24 hours after slaughtering. The amount of selenium deposited in breast muscle of birds fed organic selenium had significant increase when compared with other treatments (P<0.05). Generally, the results of this study showed that 100% replacement of sodium selenite with organic selenium from Spirulina ALGAE led to increase in breast muscle selenium deposition without reduction in bird performance.

Nowadays, finding natural antioxidants from marine sources is interesting. In this regard, seaweeds are very important. In this study, the antioxidant properties of two species of brown ALGAE Sargassum tenerrimum and green ALGAE Valoniopsis pachynema, and the effect of different solvents on the extraction of the antioxidant compounds were investigated. ALGAE were collected from Tis and Ramin beaches in the Chabahar. After drying and powdering, it was extracted by dichloromethane, methanol, chloroform, and hexane. Then the antioxidant power of concentrations of 0.01, 0.1, and 1 mg/mL of the extracts was analyzed using DPPH free radical scavenging methods, reducing power and iron ion chelating activity, in order to determine the best extract with the antioxidant properties. The highest percentage of radical inhibition was obtained in S. tenerrimum at a concentration of 1 mg/mL of methanolic extract (88.22%) and in green ALGAE V. pachynema in dichloromethane extract (74.4%). The highest reducing power (0.85) and chelating activity (88.83%) in dichloromethane extract of brown ALGAE S. tenerrimum were obtained. The highest reducing power in dichloromethane extract (0.4) and the highest chelation activity in chloroform extract (81.22%) of green ALGAE V. pachynema were seen. The concentration of 1 mg/mL of dichloromethane has more ability to extract antioxidant compounds compared to other treatments. The brown ALGAE S. tenerrimum showed higher antioxidant power than green ALGAE V. pachynema. Therefore, the algal extract of S. tenerrimum can be a potential source for compounds with antioxidant properties, and additional tests are needed.