Littoral benthic macroinvertebrates as indicators of impact in four urban lakes of Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India.

K.A.Nishadh and P.A.Azeez. EIA Division, Slim Ali Center for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON), Anaikatty (PO), Coimbatore 641108, India.
Introduction
Urbanization degrades and disrupts the energy, nutrient, hydrological cycling of aquatic ecosystems, homogenize biotic composition, induce local extinction of native species and its intensivespeedaddsanotherdimensionofrapiddegradation1,2.This dynamic and complex problem requires better understanding and urgent requirement of management efforts to conserve remaining fragileecosystems.Urbanlakesactsaswildernesscentersinconcrete jungle are facing immense threat from urbanization through municipal, industrial waste discharge in liquid, solid form, utilization pattern such as unsustainable resource extraction, defecation practices, encroachment and related pressure on upper catchmentsarea,canalsandriverslinkingtheselakes.Benthicmacro invertebrates of aquatic ecosystem as crucial connecter between producerandtopcarnivorestheircommunitycompositionefficiently reflects about the current ecosystem health and indicates different factors affecting their composition3. The present study was carried out with prime aim of describe the littoral benthic macro invertebrates of four lakes of Coimbatore which are facing varying degree of urbanization and using them as indicators of urban impacts. For quantifying urban impact we used water quality impairment in these lakes by analyzing varies physicochemical characteristicsofwaterandcalculatingWaterQualityIndex.

Results

Conclusions
NegativecorrelationbetweenWQIandbenthiccommunity diversityandevenness. The impact was due to urbanization related anomalies like sewage discharge, waste dumping, defecation practices, vegetationclearingetc, Trend of dominance of pollution tolerant groups especially Tubificidae incorrespondingimpactedlakes. Significant variation in water quality impairment within periyakulam andotherthreelakes. Benthic community composition, divergence was between sengulam, perur lakes and kurchi, periyakulam lakes, agrarianandurbanlandusedominatedlakegroups. Clustering of community composition between sengulam and kurchi lakes two sampling sites, indicating low impact profile in kurchi lake though it is an urban land use dominatedone instigateprioritizationinmanagementeffort. Though non of these lakes are managed with the aim of biodiversityconservation,ifitisinitiateditwilltookcareof overallwellbeingoflakesecosystem. Studylimitations:Basedononetimesurvey,lowtaxonomic resolution,requiresconsiderationofotherinfluentialfactors.

1% 1% 8%

Perur Lake No. of taxa Shannon Diversity H Evenness J WQI

2%

8%

28%

14
10%

2.07 0.78 75

5% 6% 1% 4% 1% 3%

22%

Tubificidae Culcidae Libellulidae Tricorythidae Heptagenidae Dytiscidae Hydrophilidae Nepidae Corixidae Pelidae Agrionidae Planorbidae Lymnaeidae Plecoptera

Sengulam Lake No. of taxa 14 Shannon Diversity H 2.25 Evenness J 0.8 WQI 84

Tubificidae Culcidae Lymnaeidae Gastropoda Planorbidae Libellulidae Gomphidae Agrionidae Tricorythidae Siphlonuridae Ostracoda Plecoptera cruculionidae Dytiscidae

2%

Tubificidae Culcidae Libellulidae Gomphidae

32%

Kurchi Lake No. of taxa Shannon Diversity H Evenness J WQI

1%

6%

4% 1%

17
3% 6%

1%

1%

1%

Lymnaeidae Planorbidae Gastropoda Hydrophilidae Agrionidae Haustoriidae Siphlonuridae Heptagenidae

2%

2.06 0.72 97

4%

6%

2% 1% 27%

Notonectidae Corixidae Pelidae Ostracoda Plecoptera

Periykulam Lake No. of taxa 13 Shannon Diversity H 1.21 Evenness J 0.47 WQI 123

Tubificidae Culcidae Lymnaeidae Planorbidae Glossiphoniidae Naucoridae Nepidae pelidae Hydrophilidae Dytiscidae Plecoptera Libellulidae Agrionidae

Figure1.Studyareapicturealongwithnumberoftaxa recorded,Shannonwienerdiversity(H),Evenness(E),WaterQualityIndexandpercentageabundanceofbenthosform foururbanlakesofCoimbatore

1 0.8
Kurchi S3

Literature cited
1. Michael L. McKinney 2002. Urbanization, Biodiversity, and Conservation. BioScience, 52: 883-890 2. Marina Alberti 2005.The Effects of Urban Patterns on Ecosystem Function. International Regional Science Review , 28:168-192 also in http://irx.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/28/2/168 3. Matthew J. Cooper, Donald G. Uzarski and Thomas M.Burton 2007. Macro invertebrate community composition in relation to anthropogenic disturbance, vegetation, and organic sediment depth in four lakes Michigan drowned river mouth wetlands. Wetlands, 27:894-903.

Materials and methods

P C 2 (3 . 8 % )

0.6 0.4 0.2

Sulphate (mg/L) Total hardness (mg/L) Total alkalinity (mg/L)

Kurchi S2 Kurchi S1 Sengulam S2 Sengulam S1

0 -0.2 -0.4 -0.6 -0.8

Sedimentsampling

Watersampling Preparationofsedimentsuspension Filtrationthroughsuccessivesieves fromcoarsetofiner(upto0.5mm) Benthoscollectionandpreservation

-1 -1

Perur Perur Perur Kurchi Kurchi Kurchi Periyakulam Periyakulam Periyakulam Sengulam Sengulam Sengulam -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2

pH Nitrate (mg/l)

TDS (mg/l)Na mg/l EC

Sengulam S3 Perur S3 Perur S2

BOD values (mg/L)

Chloride (mg/L)

Perur S1 Periyakulam S2 Periyakulam S3 Periyakulam S1

0 PC 1 (92%)

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5

Acknowledgments
We thank Rachna chandra for help in water quality analysis and support in sampling, first author also thank Professors at Department of Environmental Sciences, Bharatiyar University for their help, suggestion, and inspiration.

Physiochemicalanalysisof water

Fig:2.PrincipalcomponentanalysesofPhysicochemicalparameters ofwatersampledformfoururbanlakesofCoimbatore.
1 0.8 0.6 Mesogastropoda 0.4 0.2 0 -0.2 -0.4 -0.6 -0.8 -1 -1 Corixidae Pelidae Megapodaagrionidae Siphlonuridae Heptagenidae Ostracoda Notonectidae Plecoptera

Fig:3.Cluster analysesofPhysicochemicalparametersofwatersampledform foururbanlakesofCoimbatoreusingfarthestneighbour clusteringonEuclidian distancematrix.

Sengulam S2 Sengulam S3

Possibletaxonomic identification
P C 2 (15 . 9% )

Kurchi S1 Sengulam S1

Lymnaeidae Perur Perur Perur Kurchi Kurchi Kurchi Periyakulam Periyakualm Periyakulam Sengulam Sengulam Sengulam 0.6 0.8 1

For further information

Please contact nishadhka@gmail.com PDF version poster will be available on www.postdoc.com

Kurchi S3 Perur S2 Perur S3 Perur S1 Periyakulam S2 Periyakulam S1 Periyakulam S3 Kurchi S2

Dataanalysis Indicescalculation WaterQualityIndex(WQI) ShannonWeinerDiversityindex(H) Evenness(J) PrincipleComponentAnalysis ClusterAnalysis

Culcidae Nepidae Naucoridae Hydrophilidae Planorbidae Libellulidae cruculionidae Glossiphoniidae Haustoriidae Tubificidae Tricorythidae Gomphidae Dytiscidae

-0.8

-0.6

-0.4

-0.2

0 PC 1 (27.5%)

0.2

0.4

2.5

3.5

4.5

5.5

Fig:4.PrincipalcomponentanalysesofLittoralbenthic macroinvertebratessampledformfoururbanlakesofCoimbatore.

Distance Fig:3.Cluster analysesoflittoralbenthicmacroinvertebratessampledformfour urbanlakesofCoimbatoreusingfarthestneighbour clusteringonEuclidian distancematrix.