Spatial and seasonal distribution of intertidal macrobenthos with their biomass and functional feeding guilds in the Naf River estuary, Bangladesh

Effects of fish cage culture on macrobenthic communities in a subtropical river

“…Shannon-Wiener diversity index (H´) in the present study showed a variation ranging from 1.339 (in premonsoon in cage culture site) to 2.101 (pre-monsoon in non-cage culture site). The Shannon-Wiener diversity index (H´) was ranging from 1.05 to 1.67 in the Naf river estuary, Bangladesh (Noman et al 2019), which was almost similar to present study results. The study of Hossain et al (2013) also observed Shannon-Wiener diversity index (H´) ranging between 1.22 to 1.49, compared with the phytoplankton diversity index of 1.97 to 3.78 observed by Meshram et al (2018a).…”

“…In the present study, macrobenthic organisms were in the sequence of Oligochaeta > Polychaeta > Amphipoda > Insecta > Gastropoda > Bivalvia, and Oligochaeta > Amphipoda > Polychaeta > Insecta > Bilvalvia > Gastropoda for cage culture area and non-cage culture area, respectively (Table 3 and Table 4). The recent study of Noman et al (2019) identified 9 taxa namely Polychaeta, Mysida, Isopoda, Gastropoda, Amphipoda, Bivalvia, Decapoda, Tanaidacea and Echinodermata in Naf river estuary, Bangladesh. In the present study, Oligochaeta members have been found at every station.…”

“…Therefore, having observed more Oligochaeta in freshwater ecosystems in the present study was considered common. Polychaeta has been reported as dominant species in estuarine and mangrove ecosystems (Asadujjaman et al 2012;Pravinkumar et al 2013;Noman et al 2019).…”

“…They play an important role in the decomposer food chain, which in turn affects the cycling of minerals (Rashid and Pandit 2014). Thus, the study of benthic organisms is important for specific environmental and habitat conditions (Noman et al 2019). Cost-efficient methods for monitoring the impact of farm effluents need to be developed for sustainable aquaculture, both environmentally and economically (Hatami et al 2017).…”

“…Though rivers in Bangladesh have high faunal diversity, potential cage culture areas have been given least importance due to lack of sufficient research. A number of researches (Khan et al 2007;Hossain et al 2009;Asadujjaman et al 2012Abu Hena et al 2013Islam et al 2013;Noman et al 2019) have been conducted on macrobenthos of coastal and estuarine waters of Bangladesh. Information on cage culture impacts on macrobenthos community and its distribution in the Dakatia River is scant despite its importance in providing many ecological and economic services to the local people of Chandpur, Bangladesh.…”