Benthic quality assessment in a naturally- and human-stressed tropical estuary |
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| Institution: | 1. Biological Oceanography Division, CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography, Goa, India;2. Centre for Marine Living Resources and Ecology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Kochi, India;3. Center for Ecological Research, Kyoto University, Hirano 2-509-3, Otsu 520-2113, Shiga, Japan;4. Geological Oceanography Division, CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography, Goa, India;1. Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Centro Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Marinas, Av. Instituto Politécnico Nacional s/n Col. Playa Palo de Santa Rita, Código Postal 23096 La Paz, B.C.S., Mexico;2. Universidad del Valle, Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Exactas, Grupo de Investigación en Ecología de Estuarios y Manglares, Calle 13 No. 100-00, Ciudad Universitaria Meléndez, Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia;3. Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Departamento de Ciencias Naturales y Matemáticas, Calle 18 No. 118-250, Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia |
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| Abstract: | Cochin estuary, one of the largest tropical estuaries of India, supports high levels of human pressure throughout the year and natural stress during monsoon season. Six stations were monitored between 2002 and 2004 covering the pre-monsoon, monsoon, and post-monsoon seasons. Ecological status of macrobenthos was assessed using the AZTI's Marine Biotic Index (AMBI) and the multivariate-AMBI (M-AMBI). The overall ‘moderate’ disturbance classification (according to AMBI) and ‘moderate-poor’ ecological status (according to M-AMBI) indicate that the macrobenthos in the estuary experiences stress. There was a gradient of increasing quality from the most degraded northern site to the main estuary, downstream. Monsoon caused further reductions in quality of macrobenthos in the main estuary, while the degraded northern station showed improvement in 2003, when the monsoon was strong. The assessment of the Cochin Estuary using AMBI and M-AMBI indicates where this water body stands in comparison to European and other water bodies, which may be useful for developing required protective measures in tropical systems and to design monitoring strategies. |
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| Keywords: | Benthic invertebrate community Quality assessment AMBI M-AMBI Cochin Estuary Arabian Sea |
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