 
<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal; mso-layout-grid-align: none;\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\',\'serif\'; font-size: 12pt;\" lang=\"EN-US\">Present study was carried out on Lidder stream in Lidder valley <span style=\"mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;\">of Kashmir Himalayas </span>dealing with a typical taxonomic composition of epilithic algae in stream. Epilithic algal community was represented by 144 taxa belonging to four classes namely</span><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\',\'serif\'; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;\" lang=\"EN-US\">, Bacillariophyceae with104 species (72%), Chlorophyceae with 19 species (13%), Cyanophyceae with 12 species (8%), Euglenophyceae with 4 species (3%) and Phylum Protozoa with 3 species (2%) while classes Chrysophyceae and Dinophyceae of algae contributed 1 species (1%) each.</span><span style=\"font-family: \'Times New Roman\',\'serif\';\" lang=\"EN-US\"> <span style=\"mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;\">Bacillariophyceae was represented by some dominant forms like <em style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\">Navicula</em> (16 species), </span><em style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\">Nitzschia</em> (11<span style=\"mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;\"> species</span>), <em style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;\">Cymbella</span></em><span style=\"mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;\"> (9 species) and <em style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\">Gomphonema</em> (7species). Among blue green algae</span> (<span style=\"mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;\">Cyanophyceae), genus </span><em style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\">Spirulina</em> recorded 3 species and <em style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\">Merismopedia</em> registered 2 species. <span style=\"mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;\">While in Chlorophyceae, the highest number of species was documented by genus <em style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\">Cosmarium</em></span>(<span style=\"mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;\">3 species), moreover </span><em style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\">Closterium</em>,<em style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"> Euastrum</em> and<em style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"> Ulothrix</em> registered 2 species each.<span style=\"mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;\"> Bacillariophyceae was the predominant class at all the sites with the highest contribution of 104 species<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">&nbsp; </span>at sites S1c, S2d, S2g and S4 (first year) and S1a, S1b, S2d, S2e, S2f, S2g, and S4 (second year) while the lowest of 98 species were recorded at site S3 during the entire study, rest of the groups were moderately to least represented. </span><span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">&nbsp;</span></span></span></p>
 