Much limnological literature over the last century has been concerned with problems of primary productivity. In lentic waters large enough in size to promote a harvestable standing crop of fish, there exists numerous biocoenoses which have not been sufficiently considered. All possible productive biocoenoses should be investigated to determine their effect on the entire lentic community. An appraisal of the lentic biopotential which may prove of major importance in the problem of fish population dynamics is considered in this research. Of major interest was the quantitative analyses of the nutrients and the algal components in the littoral zone periphyton. The study was based upon the hypothesis that most lakes throughout the world are greatly influenced by the littoral area where fish spawn and where the largest standing crop of benthic insects is found. Two terms used should be defined for clarification. First, phyco-periphyton is the assemblage of algae growing on or in close proximity to submerged plant materials. Second, productivity is the primary production of phyco-periphyton developed in a space-time continuum, and is recorded in numbers of cells per liter as washed from a substratum which can be converted to the number per em.2 of leaf surface or stated as air-dry weight. The majority of studies on phyco-periphyton has been floristic in nature concerned with descriptive terminology and some with ecology. Only a few have attempted to quantify the data. Fassett (1951) stressed the importance of higher aquatic plants in supporting algae and small animals which are direct or indirect nourishment for fish. Yet he made only broad generalizations with few quantitative data on the pure dynamics of the littoral zone and the algal biocoenosis to support his conclusions. Fritch (1931) noted the importance of the littoral production of periphyton but did not demonstrate it quantitatively. In 1939 Roll attempted to clarify periphyton terminology and to establish consistency in its use. The term periphyton described the assemblage of organisms growing on all living and nonliving matter in the water. He included a complete citation of all previous studies concerned with phytosociology and described the limnological terminology used in Germany. He did not quantify littoral production of the algae. The best basic source of periphyton information was published by Young (1945) in which he commented about the possible transference of algae from the periphyton to the plankton. Roll (1939) reported Hentschell in 1917 to be the first to use glass slides for collection of periphyton in a qualitative manner and this technique has been used frequently since. Castenholz (1960), Grezenda and Bremmer (1960), Anita et al. (1963), and Sladecek and Sladeckova (1963) have advanced quantitative work using artificial barren surfaces varying from a small glass slide to a large volume plastic sphere. The artificial barren surface had been used by Patrick (1954), Whitford and Schumacher (1963), and Hohn and Hellerman (1963) to collect diatoms primarily for taxonomic and ecological purposes.