International Journal of Marine Science 2015, Vol.5, No.16, 1-12
1
Research Article Open Access
Seasonal Variation of Environmental Factors Influencing Benthic Macrofaunal
Diversity in Parangipettai and Cuddalore Coast (Southeast coast of India)
Sundaravarman. K , A. Saravanakumar, M. Pravinkumar, K. Kathiresan
Centre of Advanced Study in Marine Biology, Faculty of Marine Sciences, Annamalai University, Parangipettai – 608 502, Tamilnadu, India
Corresponding author email
International Journal of Marine Science, 2015, Vol.5, No.16 doi: 10.5376/ijms.2015.05.0016
Received: 21 Dec., 2014
Accepted: 28 Feb., 2015
Published: 18 Mar., 2015
Copyright
©
2015
Sundaravarman et al., This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article:
Sundaravarman et al., 2015, Seasonal Variation of Environmental Factors Influencing Benthic Macrofaunal Diversity in Parangipettai and Cuddalore Coast
(Southeast coast of India), International Journal of Marine Science, Vol.5, No.16 1
-
12 (doi
Abstract
An attempt was made with the diversity and seasonal variations of macrobenthic fauna and associated environmental
factors influencing the benthic community in the inshore waters of southern Indian coast. Four seasonal collections were made from
January – 2013 to December – 2013, such as, post-monsoon, summer, pre-monsoon and monsoon in the inshore waters of
Parangipettai and Cuddalore coastal region of Southeast, India. Atmospheric temperature 28 – 34.5
o
C, water temperature 27.5 – 34
o
C,
salinity 27 – 34psu and pH 7.6 – 8.2 were recorded maximum at summer season and minimum at monsoon season. Dissolved oxygen
rangers between
4.03 and 6.16 mg/l
-1
were maximum at monsoon season and minimum at summer season.
Altogether, 24 infaunal
samples (Peterson grab 0.256 m
2
)
were collected which revealed the occurrence of 86 species representing five diverse groups.
Polychaetes were the dominant group (56%), followed by Amphipods (12%), Gastropods and Isopods (9%) and Bivalves (8%).
Diversity (H’log2)
ranged between 4.030 (Cuddalore, monsoon) and 4.304 (Parangipettai, postmonsoon). K- Dominance curve
drawn paralleled the trend of diversity indices. Cluster and MDS showed the similarity infaunal composition between stations and
seasons. Some polychaetes were abundant more than other species i.e.g.,
Arabella mutans, Capitella capitata, Cossura coasta,
Lumbrineris sp.
and
Pisionidens indica
they are indicating that the particular area polluted with industrial waste.
Keywords
Physico-chemical variation; Macrofauna; Sediment characteristic; Heavy metal
Introduction
Benthic macrofauna are those organisms that live on
or inside the bottom of a water body (Idowu and
Ugwumba, 2005). Macrobenthic invertebrates are
useful bio-indicators (Basset et al., 2004) providing a
more accurate understanding of changing aquatic
conditions than chemical and microbiological data,
which at least give short-term fluctuations (Ikomi et al.,
2005). The most popular biological method in assessment
of freshwater bodies receiving domestic and industrial
wastewaters is the use of benthic macro-invertebrates
(Odiete, 1999). Their composition, abundance and
distribution can be influenced by water quality
(Haslam, 1990; APHA, AWWA and WPCF, 1998;
Odiete, 1999). They all stated that variations in the
distribution of macrobenthic organisms could be as a
result of differences in the local environmental conditions.
Limited benthic studies have been conducted in the
tropics compared to higher latitudes, and the theory
relating to the community structure is based largely on
the studies from temperate regions (Alongi, 1990).
Studies on benthos along the shelf region of
northwestern India are limited to the studies of
Neyman (1969), who studied the benthos of the
shelves in the northern part of the Indian Ocean. Other
works in the northwest coast of India include those of
(Joydas and Damodaran, 2001; Joydas, 2002). In
addition, Parulekar et al
.
, (1982) studied the benthos
of the Indian seas. However, no work has been done to
elucidate the community structure of the shelf waters
and the relationship between the benthos and
environmental properties, except that of Varshney et al
.
,
(1988), who studied the macro-benthos of very-near-
shore off Versova, West coast of India. Sourav et al.,
(2009) reported the environmental parameters and
benthic fauna diversity in East coast of India.
An important feature of the Bay of Bengal is the
influence of the southwest and northeast monsoons
that bring about a complete reversal of the surface
current pattern, either clock-wise or counter-clock-wise
