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Seasonality of macrobenthic assemblages and the biotic environmental quality of the largest monsoonal estuary along the west coast of India

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Abstract

This study deals with the macrobenthic assemblages and the biotic environmental quality of Kochi backwaters (KBW), India. Due to the heavy river discharge, extensive limnetic and turbid conditions prevailed in the KBW during the southwest monsoon (June to September). This exerted a profound adverse effect on the abundance, richness, and diversity of macrobenthic assemblages. Overall, mesohaline conditions with a clayey sand bottom substratum favored the high macrofaunal abundance during the southwest and northeast monsoon seasons. But mesohaline condition and sandy silt bottom were found to support high macrofaunal abundance in the KBW during the pre-monsoon season. Polychaete dominated the macrobenthic community, regardless of seasons. Capitella capitata, Heteromastus similis, Paraheteromastus sp., Prionospio cirrobranchiata, Minuspio cirrifera, Pagurapseudopsis kochindica, P. gymnophobia, Ctenapseudes indiana, C.chilkensis, Tanais sp., Villorita cyprinoides, Grandidierella sp., Ampelisca sp., and Littorina sp. were the dominant ones observed during the study. The sediment organic carbon, in general, showed a positive correlation with polychaete abundance during all three seasons. The ecological status of KBW during all three seasons was assessed as per BO2A index, which ranged from 0.05 to 0.18, suggesting a healthy to a moderately polluted bottom environmental condition.

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Data availability

The data sets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request through the Director, CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography, or the Scientist-in-Charge, Regional Centre Kochi.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Director, CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography, Goa for facilities and encouragement. We thankfully acknowledge all our colleagues in CSIR-NIO, RC-Kochi, India, who helped in carrying out the fieldwork. This work was carried out as a part of the OCEAN FINDER programme of CSIR-NIO, India. This is CSIR-NIO Contribution 6690.

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This study was financially supported by the CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography.

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  1. Jagadeesan Loganathan

    Present address: CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography, Regional Centre, Vishakapatnam, India

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  1. CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography, Regional Centre, Kochi, Kerala, 628018, India

    Pandiya rajan Rethinam Subramanian, Jyothibabu Retnamma, Arunpandi Nagarathinam, Jagadeesan Loganathan, Parthasarathi Singaram & Vishnu Chandrababu

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Contributions

Pandiya rajan R S: conceptualization, methodology, data curation, writing—original draft, visualization.

Jyothibabu R: conceptualization, methodology, data curation, visualization, writing—review & editing, supervision, funding acquisition.

Arunpandi N: conceptualization, methodology, visualization, formal analysis

Jagadeesan L: conceptualization, methodology, data curation, visualization, formal analysis, writing—review & editing, supervision.

Parthasarathi S: software, methodology, visualization.

Vishnu C: software, visualization, data curation.

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Correspondence to Jyothibabu Retnamma.

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Rethinam Subramanian, P.r., Retnamma, J., Nagarathinam, A. et al. Seasonality of macrobenthic assemblages and the biotic environmental quality of the largest monsoonal estuary along the west coast of India. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 37262–37278 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-13144-w

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