Journal of
Oceanography and Marine Science

  • Abbreviation: J. Oceanogr. Mar. Sci.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 2141-2294
  • DOI: 10.5897/JOMS
  • Start Year: 2010
  • Published Articles: 62

Full Length Research Paper

Macrobenthos of shelf zone off Dhamara estuary, Bay of Bengal

Debasish Mahapatro1*, R. C. Panigrahy2, S. Naik2, S. K. Pati3 and R. N. Samal1
  1Chilika Development Authority, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. 2P.G. Department of Marine Sciences, Berhampur University, Berhampur -760007, Odisha, India. 3Zoological Survey of India, WRC, Pune, India.
Email: [email protected]

  •  Accepted: 04 January 2011
  •  Published: 28 February 2011

Abstract

 

The present study is an attempt to know the status of the macrobenthos at the shelf region off Dhamara Estuary. A total of 1870 individulas per square meter of macrobenthic organisms were encountered during the study period. Population density and species diversity was found to be higher as depth increased. Polychaeta emerged as dominate macrobenthic group. Among dominant benthic macroinvertebrates NereisNepthys,CapitellaOwenniaPrionospioGammarusAmpeliscaTellinaDonaxDentallium,Echinus etc were predominant in the study region. Environmental parameters like salinity, pH and dissolved oxygen exhibited strong correlation with population density of macrobenthic organisms. Factors 1 and 2 pooled from principal component analysis represented 64.09% of the total variability. The noteworthy aspect of the present study is higher value of population density marked at deeper regions with heterogeneous sediment than shallow depth.

 

Key words: Shelf region macrobenthos, correlation coefficient, PCA.