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Impact of eutrophication on the occurrence of Trichodesmium in the Cochin backwaters, the largest estuary along the west coast of India

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Abstract

Phytoplankton studies in early 1970s have shown the annual dominance of diatoms and a seasonal abundance of Trichodesmium in the lower reaches of the Cochin backwaters (CBW) and adjacent coastal Arabian Sea during the pre-summer monsoon period (February to May). Surprisingly, more recent literature shows a complete absence of Trichodesmium in the CBW after 1975 even though their seasonal occurrence in the adjacent coastal Arabian Sea continued without much change. In order to understand this important ecological feature, we analyzed the long-term water quality data (1965–2005) from the lower reaches of the CBW. The analyses have shown that salinity did not undergo any major change in the lower reaches over the years and values remained >30 throughout the period. In contrast, a tremendous increase was well marked in levels of nitrate (NO3) and phosphate (PO4) in the CBW after 1975 (av. 15 and 3.5 μM, respectively) compared with the period before (av. 2 and 0.9 μM, respectively). Monthly time series data collected in 2004–2005 period from the lower reaches of the CBW and coastal Arabian Sea have clearly shown that the physical characteristics like salinity, temperature, water column stability, and transparency in both regions are very similar during the pre-summer monsoon period. In contrast, the nutrient level in the CBW is several folds higher (NO3, 8; PO4, 4; SiO4, 10; and NH4, 19 μM) than the adjacent coastal Arabian Sea (NO3, 0.7; PO4, 0.5; SiO4, 0.9; and NH4, 0.6 μM). The historic and fresh time series data evidences a close coupling between enriched levels of nutrients and the absence of Trichodesmium in the Cochin backwaters

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Dr. S.R. Shetye, Director, National Institute of Oceanography for providing facilities. The data used for this paper were collected associated with two research programs of NIO Regional Centre, Kochi, India; Viz, ‘Ecosystem Modeling of Cochin Backwaters’ (funded by ICMAM, PD- Chennai), and ‘Near-shore Dynamics along the Kerala Coast with Special Reference to Upwelling and Mudbanks’ (funded by Centre for Marine Living Resources and Ecology, Kochi). This is NIO contribution 5158.

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  1. G. D. Martin

    Present address: Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kochi, 682016, India

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  1. CSIR National Institute of Oceanography, Regional Centre, Kochi, 682018, India

    G. D. Martin, R. Jyothibabu, N. V. Madhu, K. K. Balachandran, Maheswari Nair, K. R. Muraleedharan, P. K. Arun, C. K. Haridevi & C. Revichandran

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Martin, G.D., Jyothibabu, R., Madhu, N.V. et al. Impact of eutrophication on the occurrence of Trichodesmium in the Cochin backwaters, the largest estuary along the west coast of India. Environ Monit Assess 185, 1237–1253 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-012-2628-7

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