Investigating Temporal Variation of Water Quality and Benthic Macroinvertebrates in Taudaha Lake, Kathmandu, Nepal

Abstract

Taudaha Lake is one of the important wetlands in Nepal, as it provides critical habitats for thousands of migratory birds and fishes. Despite being a critically important water body, there is a lack of detail chemical and biological studies on this lake. The present study investigates the effects of seasonal water quality variations in distribution and abundance of macroinvertebrates in Taudaha Lake, during four different seasons in 2006. The results indicate that all the water quality parameters, except secchi depth, and total alkalinity, significantly varied among seasons. The gross primary productivity of the lake also significantly varied among the seasons, with highest primary production during summer (3.92 ± 0.18 gC/m 3 /day) and lowest during spring (2.44 ± 0.67 gC/m 3 /day). A total of 2166 individual benthic macroinvertebrates from 10 families and 7 orders were collected during the study period. Unlike water quality parameters, the macroinvertebrate species composition did not vary significantly among the seasons. The results suggested that the change in lake water quality did not have significant impacts on community metrics such as species diversity, species richness, and species evenness.

Hydrochemistry of Rara Lake: A Ramsar lake from the southern slope of the central Himalayas, Nepal

“…Polymictic lakes, such as Taudaha with a 6 m depth, do not show stratification phenomena (Shrestha and Adhikari 2016). Similar stratification of Nam Co Lake was reported by Wang et al (2009) with the epilimnion at 18-20 m, the metalimnion ranging from 20-60 m and the deepest and darker hypolimnion at the bottom of the lake.…”

“…The vertical temperature distribution in a large lake is greatly influenced by its geographic positioning and by its depth (Yang et al 2018). Larger lakes with greater depths are highly prone to stratification more than are shallow lakes (Shrestha and Adhikari 2016). This phenomenon in a lake is a very important indicator that determines the water quality and aquatic ecosystem (Pal et al 2014).…”

Evaluation of Spatial-Temporal Variations of Water Quality and Plankton Assemblages and Its Relationship to Water Use in Kulekhani Multipurpose Reservoir, Nepal

“…Similarly, dissolved oxygen (DO), free carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), alkalinity and hardness were analyzed in the field, immediately following the sample collection, using standard wet titration methods explained elsewhere in detail [23] [24] [25]. Water samples for the analyses of nitrate, and phosphate were collected in 1-L acid-washed plastic bottles, transported on ice and stored at −4˚C until lab analysis.…”

The assessment of water quality by macroinvertebrate and water quality indices in small reservoir (Damsa, Türkiye)

“…The various anthropogenic activities are thought to be the main sources of high nitrogen and phosphorous nutrients. Cultural eutrophication from high nutrient is a recognized important anthropogenic impact on aquatic ecosystems (Shrestha & Adhikari, 2016; Smith et al, 2006).…”