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DIVERSITY, ABUNDANCE AND DISTRIBUTION OF MACROINVERTEBRATES IN COLOMBO CANAL SYSTEM AND THE POTENTIAL OF USING THEM AS BIOINDICATORS FOR STREAM HEALTH MONITORING
... As most of the benthic organisms are sedentary in nature and their movement is limited, it is very difficult for them to avoid environmental disturbance (Pawhestri et al., 2014). Macro-benthic bio-indicators are presently utilized and promoted by various organizations (World Conservation Union, International Union for Conservation of Nature), as a means to handle bio-monitoring and evaluate human effects (Perera et al., 2011). ...
Coastal and marine environments face various perturbations which include a variety of industrial wastes and other toxic compounds accruing from shore line industries. Dumping of fly ash slurry and coolant water from thermal power plant is known to affect the physico-chemical nature of the coastal environment and thereby cause severe damage to the benthic organisms. A total of 69 macrobenthic species belonging to five macrofaunal taxa Polychaetes, Bivalves, Gastropods, Crustaceans and Isopods were recorded with maximum density of macrofauna (1625Nos/m-²) during postmonsoon and the minimum during monsoon. Among the five macrofaunal taxa, Polychaetes topped the list with 43 species followed by Bivalves and Gastropods (10 species each), Crustaceans (4 species) and Isopods (2 species). Seasonally, the maximum number of species (41 species) was recorded at offshore station during postmonsoon and minimum (26 species) was recorded at inshore stations during monsoon. To combat this, the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) developed a suite of health indices, of which, the AMBI (AZTI-Marine Biotic Index) index is proved to be efficient in assessing the ecological status of marine environment by using the macro benthic communities. In this backdrop, the present study was made to ascertain the ecological health of Ennore coast regions using AMBI and M-AMBI (Multivariate-AZTI Marine Biotic Index) indices. The AMBI was found to range from 3.83 (moderate) to 0.69 (high) and M-AMBI values 0.51 (good) to 0.83 (high) calculated for the Ennore coast indicated relatively signaled moderately disturbed nature ecological quality of the system. The present study proves that there is an immense scope for application of AMBI and M-AMBI in ecological health assessment studies.
... A recent study carried out in Colombo – Sri Jayawardhanapura Canal System has attempted to find the possibility of using aquatic macroinvertebrates as bioindicators for stream health monitoring. It was revealed that there is a potential of using Tubifex spp, Freshwater shrimps and Damsel flies larvae as individual bioindicators for monitoring stream (wetland) health particularly for some parameters like DO, BOD and TDS (Perera, Wattavidanage and Nilakarawasam, 2011a). During the study seven macroinvertebrate species/taxa such as 1.Tubifex spp., 2.Lymnaea stagnalis, 3.Dragonfly nymphs, 4.Chironomidae larva, 5.Horsefly larva, 6.Freshwater shrimps and 7.Damsel fly larvae were selected as candidate bioindicators. ...
In the present study, benthic macrofaunal diversity and distribution in Ambuliyar River and Sethubavachatram coastal waters were studied and a total of 59 species of macrofauna consisting of three groups namely Polychaetes, Bivalve, and Gastropods were recorded with a maximum density of macrofauna (1650 Nos./m-2) in St-3. Among the four macrofaunal taxa, polychaetes topped the list with 49 species followed by Bivalves (6 species) and gastropods (4 species). Seasonally, the maximum number of macrofaunal species (36 species) was recorded at St-3 during post-monsoon, and the minimum (23 species) was recorded at St-5 during monsoon seasons. CCA and BIO-ENV (Biota-Environmental matching) analysis showed that the environmental parameters such as dissolved oxygen, salinity, w. pH, silt, sand, TOC, and Clay manifested as the best match (ρω = 0.942) in determining macrofaunal distribution in the surveyed stations. The maximum macrofauna diversity (3.467) and evenness (0.743) were recorded at St-3 and the maximum species richness was recorded (6.539) at St-5. The results of the present study would help to develop an understanding of the macrofaunal distribution based on physico-chemical parameters, which will form a reliable tool in bio-monitoring studies..
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