The growing concern about the shortage of fossil fuels drives the search for new sources of sustainable energy. Microalgae are considered promising in this area, since they are sources of third generation biofuels and protein. The present study aimed at describing and isolating species from the native phytoplankton communities of four reservoirs in the Pernambuco semiarid, making them available for experiments that can evaluate the biotechnological potential and meet the demands of the region. The collections occurred in water bodies located in the Pernambuco semiarid and the identification of the taxa occurred based on morphological characters using specific literature. A total of twenty-one taxa were identified, eight of them Cyanophyceae (Anabaena sp., Aphanocapsa elachista, Chroococcus dispersus, Dolichospermum sp., Merismopedia sp., Microcystis aeruginosa, Pseudanabaena limnetica, Synechococcus sp.), ten Chlorophyceae (Chlorella sp., Cosmarium bioculatum, Desmodesmus spp., Dictyosphaerium sp., Pediastrum duplex, Pediastrum simplex, Pseudokirchineriella subcapitata, Scenedesmus sp., Staurastrum leptocladum, Trochiscia sp) and only one of the following classes Bacillariophyceae (Aulacoseira granulata), Euglenophyceae (Trachelomonas volvocida) and Dinophyceae (Ceratium furcoides). The bioprospection of microalgae in the semiarid region of Pernambuco has made possible the formation of a bank of strains, important for fictional studies and obtaining biomass of species with biotechnological potential.
