Abstract
The biodiversity of freshwater ecosystems especially macrophytes are threatened by various anthropogenic factors. We performed this study to investigate the beta diversity pattern of macrophyte communities in the Ganga River to find out their relationship with the physio-chemical properties of the habitat and to identify their life forms with conservation priorities and ensuring priority areas for conservation and restoration. We found that the species replacement (Repl) contributes more to beta diversity than similarity (S) and richness difference (RichDiff) component indicating continuous macrophyte turnover along the Ganga river. We found that the local contribution to beta diversity (LCBD) has a significant positive relationship with organic carbon and nitrate. We identified seven sites in the middle and lower reach of the Ganga River whose LCBD values lie within the top 75% indicating that these sites have unique species composition. The species with the highest species contribution to beta diversity (SCBD) values were mostly emergent macrophytes, which have a greater influence on the beta diversity in the studied region. Thus, when developing models and action plans for Ganga River management, which includes both biodiversity conservation and restoration, the middle and lower sections of the river, as well as emergent macrophytes, should be considered.
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Data availability
The datasets used for the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
References
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Acknowledgements
This study was carried out under the projects “Biodiversity conservation and Ganga rejuvenation” and “Planning and Management for Aquatic Species Conservation and Maintenance of Ecosystem Services in the Ganga River Basin” funded by the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India. We express our gratitude to Shri G. Asok Kumar, Director General (DG), NMCG, Mr. Rajiv Ranjan Mishra and Mr. Upendra Prasad Singh, Former DGs, and their team for extending funding support. We would like to thank the Chief Wildlife Warden of the Government of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal for providing and facilitating timely research permits to conduct the study. We acknowledge the help and support provided by the Director and Dean at the Wildlife Institute of India in carrying out this study.
Funding
National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India (Grant No. B-02/2015-16/1259/NMCG-WII PROPOSAL and B-03/2015-16/1077/NMCG-NEW PROPASAL).
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DD: Data curation, investigation, methodology, validation, writing—original draft; MS: Data curation, investigation, methodology, validation, writing—original draft; KD: Conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, software, validation, visualization, writing—original draft; BSA: Project administration, resources, supervision, validation, writing—review and editing; SAH: Funding acquisition, project administration, resources, supervision, validation, writing—review and editing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Dey, D., Shruti, M., De, K. et al. Local and species contribution of beta diversity of macrophytes in perspective of conservation and restoration of Ganga River, India. Hydrobiologia 851, 2053–2070 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-023-05440-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-023-05440-y