Biological indicators in relation to coastal pollution along Karnataka coast, India

Abstract

Abstract:Marine pollutants in relation to planktonic and benthic organisms were examined at two locations along Karnataka coast, one at Kulai (74 0 47.74" E and 12 0 55.16" N) receiving huge amount of industrial effluents from fertilizer, petroleum and chemical plants along with t he sewage discharges. The other site Padubidri ( 74 0 45" E and 13 0 10" N) is located 20 kms away, which is a typically agricultural and fishing village having no stress of industrial discharges. Although the concentrations of dissolved oxygen (DO), nutrients and trace metals in water and sediment showed marginal differences at these two locations, the concentration of petroleum hydrocarbon (PHC) remained exceptionally high with a maximum of 1523 µg/l at Kulai which is 10 times higher than that at Padubidri (144 µg/l).Biomass and population of phytoplankton and zooplankton showed that the seasonal differences were more conspicuous rather than the regional changes.Macro and meiobenthic population remained high at both the locations during the two seasons. Phytoplankton species indicated that centric diatoms such as

Observation on Marine Copepod - Appendicularian Naturally Changing Concentrations Along Southwest Coast of India

“…Coastal waters of Mangalore were reported to be enriched by nutrient irrespective of seasons, mainly from domestic sewages and organic effluents from the major and minor industries situated on the riverbanks, fish landing centers and harbor operations through the two rivers viz., Gurupur and Netravati (Verlecar et al, 2006). One of the major findings emanating from the results of the present study is that the riverine fresh water fluxes interacted closely with coastal waters through tide movement and mixing.…”

“…Predation by omnivorous copepods on other components of the phytoplankton and microzooplankton, especially small heterotrophic nanoflagellates and ciliates, may be important. The fate of primary production in the Mangalore upwelling system has been attributed to herbivore by the abundant copepods (Verlecar et al, 2006). It is well known that copepods feed mostly on phytoplankton, mainly the diatoms.…”

Assessing reliable indicators to sewage pollution in coastal soft-bottom communities

“…However, high heavy metal concentrations were detected in other outfalls, as in sewage disposals from Sydney (Matthai and Birch 2000). These increases had been detected with presence of industrial activities, as photography (Bothner et al 2002), oil and chemical industries (Verlecar et al 2006) or mining activity (Riba et al 2004). Sewage from studied outfalls should not be mixed with industrial wastewaters, being mainly of domestic origin and avoiding high concentrations of metals.…”

Environmental modulation of the plankton community composition and size-structure along the eutrophic intertidal coast of the Río de la Plata estuary, Argentina

“…In addition, eutrophication and organic pollution through the anthropic input from agricultural activities and domestic, industrial, and urban discharges strongly modulate plankton community biomass and composition (De Jonge et al, 2002;Paerl et al, 2010). Thus, in several studies plankton is considered as a useful ecological indicator to evaluate the impact of anthropogenic activities on the functioning of ecosystems in coastal environments (Beaugrand, 2005;Verlecar et al, 2006). For example, anthropogenic perturbations strongly modulate the phytoplankton-community biomass and composition (Paerl et al, 2010), because of its direct link and sensitivity to nutrient loading (Borja et al, 2012).…”