Abstract: Polychaetes are the most abundant taxon in benthic communities and have been most often utilized as indicator species of environmental perturbations. Taking into account the confluence point of fishing harbor and Uppanar back waters, in the present study four stations were fixed in the Cuddalore coastal waters. Biological entities (polychaetes) and environmental variables such as temperature, salinity, DO, pH and total organic carbon in sediment and soil texture were studied from February 2009 to January 2010. Polychaetes abundance and biomass showed minimum in station I during monsoon and maximum in station III during premonsoon. As found in density, diversity and richness values were more in stations III and IV and less in stations I and II. Seasonally, the minimum diversity value was recorded during monsoon and maximum during summer. K-dominance plot and ABC curves also revealed the trend of diversity indices. Similarly the bubble plot showed unequivocally the abundance pattern in stations I and II. Cluster, MDS plots showed that stations I, II and stations III, IV formed groups themselves indicating variation in species composition.
Keywords: Polychaete, Indicator species, Diversity, k-dominance, ABC curve, Cluster.
Title: Benthic Polychaetes: A Veritable Indicator of Ecosystem Health
Author: Muthuvelu Samikkannu, Bharathidasan Veeraiyan, Sivaraj Sigamani, Murugesan Perumal
International Journal of Life Sciences Research
ISSN 2348-313X (Print), ISSN 2348-3148 (online)
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