Diversity of infaunal macrobenthic community in the intertidal zone of Vellar estuary (Southeast coast of India)

Hemalatha, A.; Ansari, Kapuli Gani Mohamed Thameemul; Rajasekaran, R.; Fernando, Olivia J.

doi:10.5376/ijms.2014.04.0047

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…In the subarctic, the stressful periods are winter (ice cover and scouring disturbance of the littoral zone, Azovsky et al 2023) and spring (desalination due to melting and increasing river discharge, Burkovsky, Mazei 2001). Tropical estuaries, in turn, are in uenced by the biannual monsoon cycle; in the monsoon periods, precipitation increases and therefore water salinity decreases sharply, and the intertidal fauna is affected by water freshening and suffocation (Fernando 1987;Sivadas et al 2011;Hemalatha et al 2014;Mahesh et al 2021). To minimize the effects of seasonality, both sites were surveyed during stable periods -in summer (July-August) in the Chernaya estuary and in the premonsoon season in Vellar.…”

Section: Sampling and Sample Processing Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional Structure of Intertidal Ciliate Assemblages Along Salinity Gradient in Two Contrasting Estuaries Testing Paradigms in Estuarine Ecology

Azovsky,

SARAVANAKUMAR,

GARLITSKA

et al. 2023

Preprint

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The abundance, diversity, taxonomic composition and functional structure of benthic ciliate assemblages were studied in the intertidal zone of two estuaries with contrasting conditions. The Chernaya (CH) is a small (2-km long) sub-Arctic estuary in the White Sea; the Vellar (VE) is a large (20-km long) tropical estuary in the Bay of Bengal. At both sites, the average abundance and biomass of ciliates were similar and quite typical of other marine interstitial habitats. The diversity was high (114 species in CH; 39 taxa, mainly identified to the genus or putative species level, in VE). Spatial distribution patterns in abundance, biomass and taxonomy-based diversity indices differed between the estuaries. In contrast, most functional traits followed similar trends in both estuaries. In particular, from the riverine part seaward, the ratio of raptorial algivorous ciliates to bacterio- and detritovore fine filter feeders increased, as well as the ratio of crawling or gliding ciliates to free-swimmers. Mean body size and oblongness also increased seaward. No clearly defined diversity minima were found in the mid-estuary oligohaline zones. The results are discussed in the context of some general concepts in estuarine ecology.

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