International Research Journal of Environment Sciences________________________________ ISSN 2319–1414Vol. 2(5), 17-24, May (2013) Int. Res. J. Environment Sci. International Science Congress Association 17 Biodiversity and Abundance of Benthic Macro-invertebrates Community of River Tawi in Vicinity of Udhampur City (J&K) INDIAMohan V.C., Sharma K.K., Sharma A. and Watts P.Department of Zoology University of Jammu, Jammu (J&K) INDIA Department of Zoology, G.N.D.U Amritsar Punjab INDIAAvailable online at: www.isca.in Received 8th March 2013, revised 11th April 2013, accepted 13th May 2013 AbstractAquatic macro-invertebrates responds to a variety of environmental conditions of rivers and streams and therefore may be used as bio-indicators for assessing water quality parameters. Seasonal variations in macrobenthic invertebrate fauna and selected physico-chemical parameters of river Tawi have been studied on monthly basis for a period of one year (September, 2011 to August, 2012). The benthic macroinvertebrate fauna of river Tawi was represented by thirteen species belonging to three groups viz. Annelida (4 taxa), Arthropoda (6 taxa) and Mollusca (3 taxa). Arthropoda was the dominant group among all and it constitutes 57.24 % of the total macrobenthic invertebrates collected. Annelida was the second dominant group and contributes 25.02% of total macrobenthic population. Whereas group Mollusca was the least abundant among all and it shared 17.72% of total macrobenthic fauna of river Tawi. The relative species diversity, species richness, dominance and evenness were calculated. The value of Simpson index ranged between H’= 0 to 1.07. The maximum species diversity value was obtained in August 2012 whereas its value was 0 in the month of July. The value of Shannon-Weiner index was higher (I= 2.15) in February. Species richness in term of Maraglef’s index and Menhinick’s index varied between minimum valued R= 0 (July) to a maximum value R = 1.94 (Feb.) and a minimum valued R= 0 (July) to a maximum value R = 1.00 (March) respectively. The minimum evenness value was observed in July and maximum in May the values being E = 0 and E= 0.96 respectively. Keywords: Introduction Now a day’s fresh water has become a scare commodity due to over exploitation and pollution. Hence it is necessary to evaluate quality of water in order to assess its suitability for various uses. The physico-chemical means are used in detecting effect of pollution on the water quality but changes in the trophic status of a water body is reflected in its biotic community-structure including species pattern, distribution and diversity . The abundance of benthic fauna mainly depends on physical and chemical properties of their habitat as they respond more quickly if any changes in water quality occur. Macrobenthic invertebrates can be used as bio-indicators because of their extended residency period in specific habitats and presence or absence of particular benthic species in a particular environment and habitat conditions. They are most frequently used in biomonitoring studies because they significantly respond to various organic and inorganic pollution had also been extensively documented4-5. Benthic fauna are especially of great significance for fisheries that they themselves act as food of bottom feeder fishes. Investigation on distribution and assessment of macro-benthic resources in the riverine systems has been well discussed6-12. Benthic environments have been and will be adversely impacted by human activities such as over-fishing, bottom trawling and dredging, pollution of water, aquaculture and introduced species and human induced climate change occurring over the last century. The combination of these direct and indirect human impacts on the aquatic environment is inducing unprecedented changes in these ecosystems. So the present study is aimed to generate data about water qualities and macrobenthic fauna of river Tawi in the vicinity of Udhampur, Material and Methods Study area: River Tawi originates from base of Kali Kund glacier and adjoining area southwest of Bhadarwah in Doda District of J&K. The study area of river Tawi lies 32°56’ North to 75°09’ East at an elevation of 624m above sea level and about 4 km away from the Udhampur city as shown in figure 1. Physico-chemical parameters analysis: The water quality parameters such as temperature, pH, transparency, free CO and dissolved oxygen, carbonates, bicarbonates, chloride, calcium and magnesium were measured in the field. However, for nitrate, phosphate and sulphate samples were bought to the laboratory in glass bottles of 500 ml capacity and analyzed within 6 hours because prolonged storage changes the sample quality due to biological activities. Chemical preservation by 2ml chloroform per litre was also done. For the collection and analysis of various water quality parameters standard methods were followed13-14. International Research Journal of Environment Sciences______________________________________________ ISSN 2319–1414 Vol. 2(5), 17-24, May (2013) Int. Res. J. Environment Sci. International Science Congress Association 18 Macrobenthic invertebrates sampling: The samples were collected with the use of an Ekman dredge and the collected samples were washed through sieve no. 40 (256 meshes/ cm) and macrobenthic invertebrates thus segregated were transferred to tubes and preserved in 5% formalin for subsequent identification. For qualitative analysis, collected samples were examined using microscope and identified by using standard keys15-17. However, for quantitative analysis, were done by counting individuals species-wise in the whole sample or sub sample. The number of benthos per unit area was calculated as follows: N Benthos No/m = -------x 1000 A.S Whereas: N = Number of organism collected per sample, A = Biting area of sampler (15 x 15 cm), S = Number of samples taken. Statistical analysis: To understand a particular biotic community, it is important to work out various indices. In this case, species diversity and species richness was calculated using Shannon-Weaver Index (H)18, Simpson’s Index (I)19 Margalef’s Index (R20 and Menhinicks Index respectively. Evenness was calculated by Pielou’s index (E)21. Results and Discussion Analysis of water quality parameters: Mean Variations in the physico-chemical parameters of river Tawi is shown in table 2. pH varies in the range of 8.1 to 8.9 which means the pH of water remained alkaline throughout the study period. Dissolved oxygen increased with the decrease of water temperature and found maximum i.e. 9.60 mg/l in the month of December and minimum in 4.75 mg/l (June) when water is quite turbid due to rain and flood. Free carbon dioxide was present throughout the study period and its value ranged between 1.27 mg/l to 6.23 mg/l. Maximum value was seen in the month of December and minimum in March. Bicarbonates were present and their value ranged between 86 mg/l to 146.4mg/l. Chloride value ranged between 2.89 mg/l in February to 22.09mg/l in September. Both calcium and magnesium value decreased from September to November then increased in December and then further decreases. Their values showed the water is hard throughout the study period. The phosphate, sulphate and nitrate do not varied in uniform manner as shown in table 2. The results revealed that there were no significant seasonal variations in physico – chemical parameters and all the parameters were in the normal permissible limit and indicated better quality of water resources. Qualitative analysis: Qualitatively macrobenthic invertebrates analysis showed the presence of three species of Annelida belonging to two classes Oligochaeta (Tubifex tubifex, Aeolosoma sp. and Metaphire posthuma) Hirudinea Erphobdella anoculata), six species of Arthropoda belonging to five classes, Diptera (Chironomous sp. meigen and Anopheles meigen) Odonata (Dragonfly nymph) Tardigrada (Macrobiotus speciesLepidoptera (Butterfly larva) Ephemeroptera Callibaetis fluctuans) and three species of Mollusca belonging to two families Planorbidae (Gyralus sp. charpentier) Lymnaedae (Lumnaea acuminate and Lymnaea sp.). Table-1 Monthly variations of different species of macro-benthic invertebrates (no. m-2) in river Tawi during study period S.No Name of species Units Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May June July Aug. Total A. ANNELIDA a. Oligochaeta 1. Tubifex tubifex No./m 2 - 4 4 4 13 9 9 27 45 139 - - 254 2. Aeolosoma hemprichi No./lit. - 14 7 7 10 14 14 - - 18 - - 84 3. Metaphire posthuma No./m 2 9 9 - - - 4 - - - 9 - 18 49 b. Hirudinea 1. Erpobdella anoculata No./m 2 - - - - - - 4 - - - - - 4 B ARTHROPODA a. Odonata 1. Dragonfly nymph No./m 2 - 22 4.5 - 4 13 - - 13 22 - - 78.5 b. Diptera 1. Chironomous sp. meigen No./m 2 - - 18 22 22 13 9 18 72 108 - - 282 2 Anopheles meigen No./m 2 - 72 13 - - 13 - - 27 81 - - 206 c Tardigrada 1. Macrobiotus sp. No./lit. - - - 10 13 7 19 - - 27 - - 76 Lepidoptera 1 Butterfly larva No./m 2 13 13 22 - - - - - - 13 - - 61 Ephemeroptera 1 Callibaetis fluctuans No./m 2 9 13 13 27 - 22 13 - 27 67 - - 191 C MOLLUSCA (Gastropoda) a. Planorbidae 1 Gyralus sp.charpentier No./m 2 - 4 4 13 9 4 4 9 40 72 - 9 168 b. Lymnaedae 1 Lymnaea acuminate No./m 2 4 4 9 4 - - 4 - 31 45 - - 101 2 Lymnaea sp. No./m 2 - - - - - 4 4 - - - - - 8 International Research Journal of Environment Sciences______________________________________________ ISSN 2319–1414 Vol. 2(5), 17-24, May (2013) Int. Res. J. Environment Sci. International Science Congress Association 19 Table-2 Range and average values of various physico-chemical parameters in river Tawi during study period Parameters River Tawi Min. Max. Air temp. 27.80 ± 6.88 16.5 (Dec.) 37 (June) Water temp. 17.41 ± 5.83 9.5 (Dec.) 24 (June) Transparency 210.58 ± 109.38 45.0 (Aug.) 423 (Sep.) pH 8.36 ± 0.102 8.2 (Jan.) 8.5 (Oct.) Dissolved O2 7.76 ± 1.65 1.27 (Feb.) 6.23 (Sep.) Free CO2 3.95 ± 1.57 4.75 (Sep.) 9.60 (Jan.) Carbonates 00 00 00 Bicarbonates 118.78 ± 20.35 86.0 (Sept.) 146.4 (April) Chloride 8.12 ± 4.47 2.89 (Feb.) 22.09 (Sept.) Calcium 69.44 ± 12.31 42.0 (Oct.) 86.73 (Aug.) Magnesium 56.92 ± 22.53 20.72 (July) 96.85 (Dec.) Sulphate 0.078 ± 0.051 0.014 (July) 0.170 (Oct.) Nitrate 0.155 ± 0.052 0.109 (June) 0.300 (Aug) phosphate 0.161 ± 0.051 0.086 (Feb.) 0.269 (Aug.) Figure-1 Aerial view of the study area of river Tawi International Research Journal of Environment Sciences______________________________________________ ISSN 2319–1414 Vol. 2(5), 17-24, May (2013) Int. Res. J. Environment Sci. International Science Congress Association 20 Quantitative analysis: A total of 1562 individuals representing 13 taxa were collected from the study area as shown in the table 1. Of these Arthropoda contributed the largest share constituting 57.24% of the total macro-benthic invertebrate fauna, followed by Annelida (25.02%) and Mollusca (17.72%) respectively as shown in the figure 2. Among Annelids, Tubifex tubifex was the dominant species represents 64.90% of the total species of Annelids collected from the study area. Aeolosoma sp. was the second dominant constituted 21.48% and Metaphire posthuma was the third dominant species (12.53%). Whereas Erphobdella anoculata was the least abundant among all and was found only once in the month of March during the study period. Monthly variations in the total population of Annelids is shown in figure 3. Among Arthropods, Chironomous chironomous was the dominant species and it contributed 31.52 % to the total Arthropods population. Anopheles meigen was the second dominant species (23.02%), followed by Callibaetis fluctuans (21.35%), then Macrobiotus species (8.49%) and least was the Butterfly larva which represented 6.81% of total Arthropods. Arthropods population showed peak during summer season (June) when the water level was lower and temperature was higher as given in figure-4. Group Mollusca was the third dominant group. Among Molluscs, Gyralus sp. charpentier was the dominant species and it contributed 60.64% of total Molluscan fauna collected from the study area, followed by Lumnaea acuminate (36.40%) and least was the species Lymnaea sp. (2.88%). Molluscan density was observed higher in the month of June (figure-5) which may be due to soft and organically rich bottom, alkaline nature of water and silt matter are known to support thriving populations of macro invertebrates because of reduction in water current and as such the substratum tends to make Mollusks indistinguishable from their typical lentic habitat as also studied22. Presence of bioindicators, Chironomus chironomous larvae and Tubifex tubifex indicate the effect of pollution. Chironomous chironomous larvae showed its peak during May and June which could be attributed to low water level in the river, less oxygen content (mg/l) along with sluggish movement of water during these months23-25Tubifex tubifex dominated the total number of Oligochaetes and showed their peak in the month of June when air and water temperature was higher i.e. 37°C and 24 °C respectively. It was studied that presence of good organic detritus content contributed the maximum quantity of Oligochaetes26- 29. The peak of total benthic count remained high during May and June and low during monsoon season. Analysis of coefficient of correlation of macro-benthic invertebrates group, with various water quality parameters, has revealed mostly insignificant results except with the pH (table 3). The macrobenthic invertebrate fauna was analyzed for species diversity, species richness, dominance and evenness showed varied variations figure 6. The value of Simpson index ranged between H’= 0 to H’=1.07. The maximum species diversity value was obtained in August 2012 whereas its value was 0 in the month of July. The value of Shannon-Weiner index was higher (I=2.15) in February. Species richness in term of Maraglef’s index and Menhinick’s index varied between minimum valued R= 0 (July) to a maximum value R = 1.94 (Feb.) and a minimum valued R= 0 (July) to a maximum value = 1.00 (March) respectively. The minimum evenness value was observed in July and maximum in May the values being E = 0 and E= 0.96 respectively. This showed that maximum species diversity in term of Simpson index and Shannon-Weiner index were seen during August and February respectively. Maximum species richness in term of Maraglef’s index and Menhinick’s index were seen in month of February and March i.e. during post winter season. Due to anthropogenic stress, municipal sewage, and domestic wastes an escalation of taxa tolerant to pollution such as Chironomus chironomus and Tubifex tubifex was observed, These changes in the benthic community composition have already been put in record in other riverine ecosystems, where anthropogenic impacts were most evident30. Table-3 Correlation between various physico-chemical parameters and macro-benthic invertebrates during study period Parameters Annelida Arthropoda Mollusca Water temp. 0.09 0.15 0.13 Transparency -0.03 0.03 0.03 pH 0.41 0.42 0.50* FCO 2 -0.14 -0.14 -0.07 DO 0.001 -0.003 0.05 Bicarbonate 0.27 0.044 0.23 Chloride -0.09 -0.14 -0.007 Calcium 0.18 -0.041 0.30 Magnesium -0.18 0.028 -0.18 Phosphate -0.25 -0.25 -0.32 Sulphate -0.33 -0.12 -0.43 Nitrate -0.09 -0.07 -0.08 Significant correlation of 0.05 level (p0.05) International Research Journal of Environment Vol. 2(5), 17-24, May (2013) International Science Congress Association Pie diagram showing the percentage of different groups of Monthly variations in the number of Annelids in river Tawi during study period of Sept. 2011 to Aug.  \n  \r     \n \r\n \n Environment Sciences_______________ _________________________ International Science Congress Association Figure-2 Pie diagram showing the percentage of different groups of macro- benthic invertebrate in the study area Figure-3 Monthly variations in the number of Annelids in river Tawi during study period of Sept. 2011 to Aug. \r    \n  \r   \n  \n \n !"\n \n  \n #\n  #    _________________________ ______ ISSN 2319–1414 Int. Res. J. Environment Sci. 21 benthic invertebrate in the study area Monthly variations in the number of Annelids in river Tawi during study period of Sept. 2011 to Aug. 2012 $\n International Research Journal of Environment Sciences______________________________________________ ISSN 2319–1414 Vol. 2(5), 17-24, May (2013) Int. Res. J. Environment Sci. International Science Congress Association 22 Figure-4 Monthly variations in number of Arthropods in river Tawi during study period of Sept. 2011 to Aug. 2012 Figure-5 Monthly variations in the number of Mollusca in river Tawi during study period of Sept. 2011 to Aug. 2012 %% \n \r\n\n \n \n!"\n\n \n#\n  #$\n \n \r   \n \r\n\n \n \n!"\n\n \n#\n  #$\n   International Research Journal of Environment Sciences______________________________________________ ISSN 2319–1414 Vol. 2(5), 17-24, May (2013) Int. Res. J. Environment Sci. International Science Congress Association 23 Figure-6 Graphic representation of macrobenthic fauna diversity, evenness and richness during the study period Conclusion It is concluded that the during this study it is observed that an increase in the decaying matter during summer enhances the growth of macrobenthic invertebrates. Also the pollution indicator species like Chironomus chironomus and Tubifex tubifex showed water is polluted but not to much extent because of their low number in the study area. AcknowledgementI am highly thankful to CSIR, New Delhi for financial assistance as Junior Research Fellowship and Head department of Zoology Prof. K. K. Sharma for providing me valuable guidance and laboratory facilities. Referances1.Singh R.P. and Mathur P., Investigation of variations in physicochemical characteristics of a fresh water reservoir of Ajmer city, Rajesthan, Ind. J. 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