Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vfjqv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-29T06:47:07.834Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Changes in macrobenthic community structure from estuary to continental slope in the south-east coast of India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 March 2016

Ajmal Khan ,
Seerangan Manokaran  and
Somasundharanair Lyla
Ajmal Khan*
Affiliation:
Centre of Advanced Study in Marine Biology, Faculty of Marine Sciences, Annamalai University, Parangipettai – 608 502, Tamil Nadu, India
Seerangan Manokaran
Affiliation:
Centre of Advanced Study in Marine Biology, Faculty of Marine Sciences, Annamalai University, Parangipettai – 608 502, Tamil Nadu, India
Somasundharanair Lyla
Affiliation:
Centre of Advanced Study in Marine Biology, Faculty of Marine Sciences, Annamalai University, Parangipettai – 608 502, Tamil Nadu, India
*
Correspondence should be addressed to:A. Khan, Centre of Advanced Study in Marine Biology, Faculty of Marine Sciences, Annamalai University, Parangipettai – 608 502, Tamil Nadu, India email: seyedajmal@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The pattern of changes in the macrobenthic community was studied along the south-east coast of India from the estuary to continental slope. A transect perpendicular to the coast was selected for sampling in estuary, inshore region, continental shelf and continental slope. Sampling was done in 16 stations in the depth range of 1.7–1000 m. The community structure was characterized in terms of species composition, abundance, diversity and feeding type. Four taxa were encountered in the study area comprising 181 species of polychaetes, 65 species of molluscs, 47 species of crustaceans and six species of ‘others’ (four echinoderms and two cnidarians). Polychaetes were found to be dominant at all the depths constituting 53.89% of the total abundance and 60.54% of the total number of species. Number of species and Shannon diversity of macrobenthos increased from estuary to shelf region and then decreased. The abundance was found to be maximum in the estuary and minimum in the slope. Carnivorous species were found to be dominant in the estuarine and inshore regions and surface deposit feeders in the shelf and slope regions. Dissolved oxygen decreased gradually from 30 m depth and beyond 150 m the decrease was pronounced due to the presence of the oxygen minimum zone. The distance based linear model (DISTLM) showed the environmental variables to explain about 76.45% of the total variability in macrofaunal distribution. Among the various environmental parameters, total organic carbon, depth and salinity explained more variability than others. Gradual change in community structure was quite evident with increase in depth.

Keywords

Benthosfeeding typesspecies diversitysalinitydissolved oxygen
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 97 , Issue 1 , February 2017 , pp. 161 - 180
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abott, R.T. and Dance, S.P. (1982) Compendium of sea shells, a color guide to more than 4,200 of the world's shells. New York, NY: EP Dutton, 411 pp.Google Scholar
Alcock, A. (1985) Materials for a carcinological fauna of India. New Delhi: IBPSS.Google Scholar
Chasse, C. (1972) Économie sedimentaire et biologique des estrans meubles des cotes de Bretagne . PhD thesis. University of Paris, France.Google Scholar
Clarke, K.R. and Warwick, R.M. (2001) Change in marine communities: an approach to statistical analysis and interpretation. Plymouth: PRIMER-E, 38 pp.Google Scholar
Costello, M.J. (1998) To know, research, manage and conserve marine biodiversity. Oceanis 24, 25–49.Google Scholar
Day, D.S. and Pearcy, W.G. (1968) Species associations of benthic fish on the continental shelf and slope off Oregon. Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada 25, 2665–2675.Google Scholar
Day, J.H. (1967) A monograph of the polychaeta of Southern Africa. London: British Museum (Nat. Hist.) Publication, 878 pp.Google Scholar
Desroy, N., Warembourg, C., Dewarumez, J.M. and Dauvin, J.C. (2002) Macrobenthic resources of the shallow soft-bottom sediments in the eastern English Channel and southern North Sea. ICESJ Marine Science 60, 120–131. doi: 10.1006/jmsc.2002.1333.Google Scholar
FAO. (1984) Species identification sheets for fishery purposes. Western Indian Ocean; (Fishing Area 51). Prepared and printed with the support of the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA). Rome: Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, vols 1–6.Google Scholar
Fauchald, K. and Jumars, P.A. (1979) The diet of worms: a study of polychaete feeding guilds. Oceanography and Marine Biology – An Annual Review 17, 193–284.Google Scholar
Fauvel, P. (1953) The fauna of India including Pakistan, Ceylon, Burma and Malaya. Annelida: Polychaeta. Allahabad: Indian Press, 507 pp.Google Scholar
Flach, E. and de Bruin, W. (1999) Diversity patterns in macrobenthos across a continental slope in the NE Atlantic. Journal of Sea Research 42, 303–323.Google Scholar
Gage, J.D. and Tyler, P.A. (1991) Deep-sea biology: a natural history of organisms at the deep-sea floor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 504 pp.Google Scholar
Ganesh, T. (2003) Macrobenthic communities of northeast Indian shelf, Bay of Bengal . PhD thesis, Andhra University, Waltair, India, 186 pp.Google Scholar
Ganesh, T. and Raman, A.V. (2007) Macrobenthic community structure of the northeast Indian shelf, Bay of Bengal. Marine Ecology Progress Series 341, 59–73.Google Scholar
Gaston, G. (1987) Benthic polychaeta of the Middle Atlantic Bight: feeding and distribution. Marine Ecology Progress Series 36, 251–262.Google Scholar
Gaudencio, M.J. and Cabral, H.N. (2007) Trophic structure of macrobenthos in the Tagus estuary and adjacent coastal shelf. Hydrobiologia 587, 241–251.Google Scholar
Gaudette, H.E., Wilson, R.F., Toner, L. and David, F.G.W. (1974) An inexpensive titration method for determination of organic carbon in recent sediments. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 44, 249–253.Google Scholar
Grassle, J.F., Sanders, H.L. and Smith, V. (1979) Faunal changes with depth in the deep-sea benthos. Ambio Special Report 6, 47–50.Google Scholar
Gray, J.S. and Elliot, M. (2009) Ecology of marine sediments: from science to management. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hacker, P., Firing, E. and Hummon, J. (1998) Bay of Bengal currents during the Northeast monsoon. Geophysical Research Letters 25, 2769–2772.Google Scholar
Haedrich, R.L., Rowe, G.T. and Polloni, P.T. (1975) Zonation and faunal composition of epibenthic populations on the continental slope south of New England. Journal of Marine Research 33, 191–212.Google Scholar
Haedrich, R.L., Rowe, G.T. and Polloni, P.T. (1980) The megabenthic fauna in the deep sea south of New England, USA. Marine Biology 57, 165–179.Google Scholar
Helguera, Y., Díaz-Asencio, L., Fernández-Garcés, R., Gómez-Batista, M., Guillén, A., Díaz-Asencio, M. and Armenteros, M. (2011) Distribution patterns of macrofaunal polychaete assemblages in a polluted semi-enclosed bay: Cienfuegos, Caribbean Sea. Marine Biology Research 7–8, 757–768.Google Scholar
Holme, N.A. and McIntyre, A.D. (eds) (1984) Methods for the study of marine benthos. IBP handbook no. 16, 2nd edition. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific, 387 pp.Google Scholar
Hutchings, P. (1998) Biodiversity and functioning of polychaetes in benthic sediments. Biodiversity and Conservation 7, 1133–1145.Google Scholar
Ingole, B.S., Sautya, S., Sivadas, S., Singh, R. and Nanajkar, M. (2010) Macrofaunal community structure in the western Indian continental margin including the oxygen minimum zone. Marine Ecology (Berlin) 31–1, 148–166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jayaraj, K.A., Jayalakshmi, K.V. and Saraladevi, K. (2007) Influence of environmental properties on macrobenthos in the northwest Indian shelf. Environmental Monitoring Assessment 127, 459–475.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Joydas, T.V. and Damodaran, R. (2009) Infaunal macrobenthos along the shelf waters of the west coast of India, Arabian Sea. Indian Journal of Marine Sciences 38, 191–204.Google Scholar
Joydas, T.V. and Damodaran, R. (2013) Infaunal macrobenthos of the oxygen minimum zone on the Indian western continental shelf. Marine Ecology 35, 22–35. doi: 10.1111/maec.12052.Google Scholar
Krumbein, W.C. and Pettijohn, F.J. (1938) Manual of sedimentary petrography. New York, NY: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 549 pp.Google Scholar
Kundu, S., Mondal, N., Lyla, P.S. and Khan, S.A. (2010) Biodiversity and seasonal variation of macro-benthic infaunal community in the inshore waters of Parangipettai coast. Environmental Monitoring Assessment 163, 67–79.Google Scholar
Long, B. and Lewis, J.B. (1987) Distribution and community structure of the benthic fauna of the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence described by numerical methods of classification and ordination. Marine Biology 95, 93–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Louzao, M., Anadón, N., Arrontes, J., Álvarez-Claudio, C., Fuente, D.M., Ocharan, F., Anadón, A. and Acuna, J.L. (2009) Historical macrobenthic community assemblages in the Avilés Canyon, N Iberian Shelf: baseline biodiversity information for a marine protected area. Journal of Marine Systems 80–1–2, 47–56.Google Scholar
Lu, L. (2005) The relationship between soft bottom macrobenthic communities and environmental variables in Singaporean waters. Marine Pollution Bulletin 51, 1034–1040.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Manokaran, S., Khan, S.A., Lyla, P.S., Raja, S. and Ansari, K.G.M.T. (2013) Feeding guild composition of shelf macrobenthic polychaetes of southeast coast of India. Tropical Zoology 26, 120–139. doi: 10.1080/03946975.2013.825425.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manokaran, S., Khan, S.A. and Lyla, P.S. (2015) Macrobenthic composition of the southeast continental shelf of India. Marine Ecology 36, 1–15.Google Scholar
Mezquita, F., Sanz-Brau, A. and Wansard, G. (2000) Habitat preferences and population dynamics of Ostracoda in a helocrene spring system. Canadian Journal of Zoology 78, 840–847.Google Scholar
Muniz, P. and Pires, A.M. (1999) Trophic structure of polychaetes in the Sao Sabastino Channel (SE Brazil). Marine Biology Berlin 134, 517–528.Google Scholar
Muniz, P., Venturini, N., Hutton, M., Kandratavicius, N., Pita, A., Brugnoli, E., Burone, L. and García-Rodríguez, F. (2011) Ecosystem health of Montevideo coastal zone: a multi approach using some different benthic indicators to improve a ten-year-ago assessment. Journal of Sea Research 65, 38–50.Google Scholar
Murugesan, P., Ajithkumar, T.T., Khan, S.A. and Balasubramanian, T. (2009) Use of benthic biodiversity for assessing the impact of shrimp farming on environment. Journal of Environmental Biology 30, 865–870.Google Scholar
Pagliosa, P.R. (2005) Another diet of worms: the applicability of polychaete feeding guilds as a useful conceptual framework and biological variable. Marine Ecology 26, 246–254.Google Scholar
Pavithran, S., Ingole, B., Nanajkar, M. and Goltekar, R. (2009) Importance of sieve size in deep-sea macrobenthic studies. Marine Biology Research 5, 391–398.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pearson, T.H. and Rosenberg, R. (1978) Macrobenthic succession in relation to organic enrichment and pollution of the marine environment. Oceanography and Marine Biology – An Annual Review 16, 229–311.Google Scholar
Pfannkuche, O. and Thiel, H. (1988) Sample processing. In Higgins, R.P. and Thiel, H. (eds) Introduction to the study of meiofauna. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, pp. 134–145.Google Scholar
Rao, S. (2003) Indian sea shells (Part-1): Polyplacophora and gastropoda. Records of the Zoological Survey of India, Occasional Paper no. 192, 416 pp.Google Scholar
Rex, M.A. (1976) Biological accommodation in the deep-sea benthos: comparative evidence on the importance of predation and productivity. Deep-Sea Research 23, 975–987.Google Scholar
Shou, L., Huang, Y., Zeng, J., Gao, A., Liao, Y. and Chen, Q. (2009) Seasonal changes of macrobenthos distribution and diversity in Zhoushan sea area. Aquatic Ecosystem Health and Management 12, 110–115.Google Scholar
Smith, M.M. and Heemstra, P.C. (1986) Smith's fishes. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, pp. 142–143.Google Scholar
Snelgrove, P.V.R. (1998) The biodiversity of macro-faunal organisms in marine sediments. Biodiversity Conservation 7, 1123–1132.Google Scholar
Speich, S.M. and Wahl, T.R. (1995) Marbled Murelet populations of Washington-marine habitat preferences and variability of occurrence. In Ralph, C.J., Hunt, G.L., Raphael, M.G. and Piatt, J.E. (eds) Ecology and conservation of the Marbled Murrelet. Albany, CA: U.S. Dept., Agriculture, For. Serv., Pacific Southwest Res. Sta. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW GTR-152, pp. 313–326.Google Scholar
Spivak, E.D., Anger, K., Bas, C., Luppi, T.A. and Ismael, D. (1994) Distribution and habitat preferences of two grapsid crab species in Mar Chiquita lagoon (Province of Buenos Aires Argentina). Helgolander Meeresuntersuchungen 48, 59–78.Google Scholar
Stefanescu, C., Lloris, D. and Rucabado, J. (1993) Deep-sea fish assemblages in the Catalan Sea (western Mediterranean) below a depth of 1000 m. Deep Sea Research 40, 695–707.Google Scholar
Strickland, J.D.H. and Parsons, T.R. (1972) A practical handbook of sea water analysis. Bulletin Fisheries Research Board of Canada 167, 310 pp.Google Scholar
Teixeira, H., Salas, F., Neto, J.M., Patrício, J., Pinto, R., Veríssimo, H., García-Charton, J.A., Marcos, C., Pérez-Ruzafa, A. and Marques, J.C. (2008) Ecological indices tracking distinct impacts along disturbance-recovery gradients in a temperate NE Atlantic estuary – guidance on reference values. Estuarine Coastal Shelf Science 80, 130–140.Google Scholar
Thrush, S.F. (1991) Spatial patterns in soft-bottom communities. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 6, 75–79.Google Scholar
Ushakov, P.V. (1965) Polychaeta of Far Eastern seas of the USSR, 2nd edition. Leningrad: Academy of Science of the USSR. [In Russian]Google Scholar
Veas, R., Mirandab, E.H., Quiñones, R.A. and Carrasco, D. (2012) Spatio-temporal biodiversity of soft bottom macrofaunal assemblages in shallow coastal waters exposed to episodic hypoxic events. Marine Environmental Research 78, 1–14.Google Scholar
Wieking, G. and Kröncke, I. (2005) Is benthic trophic structure affected by food quality? The Dogger Bank example. Marine Biology 146, 387–400.Google Scholar
Wildish, D. and Kristmanson, D. (1997) Benthic suspension feeders and flow. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Woodin, S.A. and Jackson, J.B. (1979) Interphyletic competition among marine benthos. American Zoologist 19, 1029–1043.Google Scholar