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

Centre of Advanced Study in Marine Biology, Faculty of Marine Sciences, Annamalai University, Parangipettai–608 502, Tamil Nadu, India
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Marine Science, 2014, Vol. 4, No. 47   doi: 10.5376/ijms.2014.04.0047
Received: 06 May, 2014    Accepted: 13 Jun., 2014    Published: 11 Aug., 2014

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Hemalatha et al., 2014, Diversity of infaunal macrobenthic community in the intertidal zone of Vellar estuary (Southeast coast of India), International Journal of Marine Science, Vol.4, No.47 1-11 (doi: 10.5376/ijms.2014.04.0047)

The diversity and seasonal variations of an intertidal macrobenthic communities link with abiotic variables were investigated in the Vellar estuary, Southeast coast of India. Samples were collected seasonally over a one year period from four different transects based on salinity gradients. Totally twelve infaunal groups were isolated which contained 53 species representing major taxa. Gastropods were the dominant group (81.6%), followed by polychaetes (7.7%), bivalves (5.5%) and amphipods (5.2%). Among these Cerethedia spp. contributed 61% of all gastropods. The macrobenthic community abundance found maximum at transect II (39%) and a minimum at transect IV (15%) while seasonally higher during summer (41%) and lower during monsoon (8%). Diversity (H' log) values varied from 1.859 (transect IV – monsoon) to 2.467 (transect II –summer). Higher diversity and species richness found in transect II due to the artificial mangrove vegetation is playing a major role on this region. Univariate and multivariate statistical analysis clearly define the interaction between biotic and abiotic variables. The results were compared with the early investigations, more or less similar community structure and species composition explained there is no changes on community structure in this estuarine environ, while higher species diversity in the transect II due to the artificial mangrove vegetation.

Macrobenthos; Community structure; Seasonal variation; Vellar estuary; India