biodiversity and livelihood

BIODIVERSITY AND LIVELIHOOD Proceedings of the National Conference on Biodiversity Issues, Concern & Future Strategies Kolkata, 16-18 January, 2014

Edited by

A. K. Sanyal S. K. Gupta S. Manna

West Bengal Biodiversity Board (Oept. of Environment, Govt. of West Bengal), Poura Bhawan (4th Floor), Block FO, 415A, Salt Lake, Kolkata - 700 106 www.wbbb.gov.in

Biodiversity and Livelihood:

Proc. Nat. Con! Biod., 49-53, 2014

A STUDY OF PLANKTONIC COMMUNITIES ALONG THE BIDYADHARI RIVER STRETCH OF THE RAIMANGAL ESTUARY OF WEST BENGAL, INDIA ANIRUDHA SEN\ SARMISTHA SAHA1.z,SUDIPTA KUMAR MAITI1.3AND TAPAN SAlLf 'Institute of Environmental Studies and Wetland Management, DD - 24, Salt Lake City, Sector -1, Kolkata-700064, India. 'University of Calcutta, Ecological Research Unit, Zoology Department. 35- Ba/lygunge Circular Road, Kolkata- 700019, West Bengal. India 'Raja N.L. Khan Women's College, Midnapore,721102

.

E-mail: [email protected] ABSTRACT This study examines the changing scenario of plankton species along the stretch of Bidyadhari River, along with the determination of the degree of association between Biological and Physico-chemical parameters prevailing in the river. The present study shows- among the Phytoplankton, Diatoms/ Bacillariophyceae dominated the marine aquatic ecosystem and the fresh water ecosystem is dominated mostly by the species of Cyanophyceae. Most dominated is the pollution indicator species'Microcystis sp., which secretes Microcystin that inhibits the growth of other algae and has got Eutrophic effects on the river. The Zooplankton species richness is visible in the inter-mixing zone, and also in the Saline water zone. There is a dominance of species belonging to the Phylum- Arthropoda over Rotifera. Dissolved Oxygen is totally absent in the upstream sampling sites. Therefore, the Biochemical Oxygen Demand level is very high in all those sites. This indicates that the water flowing through these sites are heavily polluted and eutrophic. The nitrate concentration is highest in the inter-mixing zone. Phytoplanktons derive nutrition from nitrate. Hence, the concentration of phytoplankton is noticeably higher in the inter-mixing zone as well as in the upstream fresh water sites. Key words: Bidyadhari River, Raimangal River, Sundarbans, Phytoplankton, Zooplankton.)

Mishra (2006), Das & Panda (2010), Maiti et al. (20 (~. etc. In this study an attempt has been made to assess the planktonic diversity along the river with the physicochemical parameters for the first time.

INTRODUCTION Bidyadhari was an active delta building tidal channel of Hugli River (Ganges) and was a navigation route from the Bay of Bengal to Kolkata. This tidal channel used to deposit silt in this area earlier. Bidyadhari flows through Nadia district and joins the Raimangal River (50 km. approx. back to bay of Bengal) in the Sundarbans. This river is now projected the main drainage system of North 24 Parganas district and Kolkata city. Kolkata is one of the oldest and highly populated and unplanned cities of West Bengal as well as India. This river is now acting as natural boundary (northern) of World's largest wastewater aquaculture ecosystem called the East Kolkata Wetlands (EKW). This wetland has been declared a Ramsar site on 2002. There are few major wastecana1 connections from southern (Kolkata) side like Bagjola, Storm weather flow etc. and Noai from northern side. All these canals are regularly polluting this river and the Bay of Bengal. As it is known that planktons are the basic members of the aquatic ecosystems with the consideration of physico-chemical factors (Dutta et al., 1954), thus their monitoring to check their presence and absence plays a key role in estimating the quality of the river. Impact of pollution due to sewage and industrial effluents in different rivers is well studied by Saha et al. (1985), Tiwari and Ali (1987), Sunder (1988), Goldman and Home (1983), Saha & Ghosh (2003), etc. And succession pattern of phytoplankton's from different sites of Indian subcontinent has been informed by Bhowmick and Singb (1985), Behera et al. (1989), Tripathy and Pandey (1990), Vyas and Nama (1990), Pradhan et al. (1998), Mishra (2000), Gupta (2005),

,

MATERIALS AND METHODS Study area

as

-------------------------1

Kolkata, Ramsar site, sewage channels, Dissolved oxygen,

The area lies between latitudes 22°36'12" N to 88°40'34" E and longitude 22°18'43" N to 88°54'35" E. Bidyadhari which was a tidal river had regular influx of sea water from the Bay of Bengal through Raimangal River. Raimangal River is th-e borderline of India and. Bangladesh in Sundarban area. 44 Km long stretch of the Bidyadhari River has been divided into nine study sites starting from Haroa Bridge to Raimangal (Fig. 1).

-~ Fig. l: Sampling sites on Bidyadhari River. 49

~------------------------

A Study of Planktonic Communities ...

Ph.ytoplankton

Sampling & preservation Phytoplankton samples were collected by sieving 25lts. Of water using bolting silk plankton net (No. 25) and preserved in 4% formalin. Water sample of Phytoplankton was then centrifuged at 3000rpm for 15 minutes and concentrated to 5ml sample volume. Phytoplanktons were identified by Palmer (1969), Bold & Wynne (1978) and Gupta (2005). . Zooplankton Sampling & preservation - Zooplankton were collected by sieving 40 Its. of water using zooplankton net (No.20) and preserved in 70% alcohol. Water sample for Zooplankton was then centrifuged at 3000rpm for 15 minutes and concentrated to 10ml sample volume. Zooplanktons were identified following standard literature (Tonapi, 1980; Adoni, 1985) under research microscope. A Sedgewick-Rafter Counting Cell Slide (100 x 1 mm squares) was used for quantitative analysis and their abundance was calculated as number of individuals per liter.

required sufficient light intensity to conduct photosynthesis, which resulted in blooms. Many variants of these cyanobacteria produced multiple toxins, including the potent liver toxin, microcystin. When Microcystis died, their cells broke open, releasing the toxin microcystin into-the water. These toxins were inhibitory to the growth of other algae, thereby diminishing the population ofother species. The highest loadllit. of phytoplankton was found at Kanmari (19.68) because of intermixing zone of both saline and sewage water (Fig. 2). Palmer's algal species index scored 18 (Ankistrodesmus + Euglena + Scenedesmus sp. + Navicula sp. + Oscillatoria sp.) which confirmed high organic pollution of this water sample (Palmer, 1969). It was really so because city sewage of Kolkata was passing through this river. But after Kanmari (Site-6), phytoplankton compositions have changed so also the water quality. Synedra sp. appears at Site- 6 and 7, which signified that this species preferred marine ecosystem for its existence. Coscinodiscus sp. was another tolerant species which was mainly a marine phytoplankton present mostly in the upstream region of the river. But this species reappeared again in the last site- 9 (Raimangal) making it an opportunistic species. It apparently produced copious amount of polysaccharide exudates (slime or mucilage) that can interfere with fisheries activities by clogging nets (Boalch& Harbour, 1977; Mahoney &Steimle 1980) and was therefore considered a potentially harmful species causing algal bloom. Navicula sp. and Gomphonema sp. were present in regions of intermixing of fresh and marine water and also in the marine water sites like- 7, 8 and 9. Pleurosigma sp. was found to be present in the last sampling site-9 (Raimangal) being plankton of marine ecosystem.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION It was found along the Bidyadhari stretch that there were 56 phytoplankton species under 8 algal classes (Table - 1). Out of all classes, Myxophyceae (18), Bacillariophyceae (14) and Chlorophyceae (13) were the highest class according to number ofphytoplankton species (Fig.-l). Closterium sp. and Microcystis sp. were most abundant species found all along the river followed by Oscillatoria sp. All three species were pollution tolerant indicators. Out of these, the species which dominated in almost all the selected sites, was Microcystis sp. There was evidences that Microcystis could proliferate to dense blooms and mats under certain conditions. The blooms with the highest biomass occured in water that was high in nitrogen or phosphorus (eutrophic water). Microcystis also

Phytoplankton Load / lit. in different study sites 35 ~--------------------------------------------------------30~-------------------------25 ~--------------------------.~

20 ~-------------

-g

15 -t---------

....lo 10 -4---------------

5

o Site-l

Site-2

Site-3

Site-4

Site-5

Site-6

Site-7

Site-8

Sampling Sites Fig. 2: Load Count per liter ofPhytoplankton

------------1

50

at different study sites

1------------

Site-9


Proc. Nat. Conf. Biod., 49-53, 2014

Table - 1: Inventory of Phytoplankton at different study sites Scientific name

Class Bacillariophyceae

Achnanthes sp., Amphora sp., Coscinodiscus sp., Fragilaria sp., Gomphonema sp., Gomphonema subclavatum, Mastogloia sp,. Melosira islandica, Navicula sp.,

Odontella sp., Pinnularia sp., Pleurosigma sp., Surirella sp., Synedra sp. Chlorophyceae

Ankistrodesmus falcatus, Ankistrodesmus

sp., Bulbochaete sp., Chamaesiphon sp., Characium nasutum, Closterium lineatum, Eudorina sp., Hormidium sp., Microspora sp., Protosiphon sp., Rhizoclonium crassipelliyum, Scenedesmus sp., Ulothrix sp.

Dinophyceae

Peridinium pusil/um

Euglenophyceae

Colacium vesiculosum, Euglena acus, Euglena proxima, Euglena sp.

Myxophyceae

Aphanocapsa roseana, Aphanocapsa sp., Aphanochaete repens, Aphanothece conferta, Arthrospira sp., Chroococcus sp., Gloeocapsa sp., Merismopedia sp., Microcystis sp., Microcystis viridis, Myxosarcina sp., Nos toe paludosum, Oscil/atoria sp., Phormidium sp., Schizothrix sp., Spirulina sp., Synechococcus sp., Synechocystis sp.

Rhodophyceae

Batrachospermum

Xanthophyceae

Mischococcus sp., Vaucheria sp.

Zygnematophyceae

Closterium sp., Cosmarium sp., Mougeotia sp.

sp.

table it Was clear that whatever the limited zooplankton diversity has been obtained, in that, there is a dominance of species belonging to the Phylum-Arthropoda over Rotifera in the Bidyadhari river stretch.

It was found along the Bidyadhari stretch having 11 zoooplankton species under 2 families (Table - 2). Out ofthese, 7 species belonged to Phylum-Arthropoda and rest 4 species belonged to Phylum-Rotifera. From the

Zooplankton Load/lit. in different study sites

2.Sr--------------------------------------------------

2~-----------------------------------~

;.::3 -...

1.S ~-----------------------------

"'g

3 l~-------------------O.S ~-----------

o I-----..,.-------r-Site-l Site-2 Site-3 Site-4Site-SSite-6 Site-7 Site-8 Site-9 Fig. 3: Load Count per liter of Zooplanlcton at different study sites

------------------------~I

51

1-------------------------

A Study of Planktonic Communities ... Table 2: Inventory of Zooplanlcton at different study sites Scientific name

Family Arthropoda

Branchinella kugenumaensis, Branchinella sp., Ceriodaphnia sp. Macrocyclops sp., Mesocyclops leuckarti, Paradiaptomus sp., Phyllodiaptomus blanci

Rotifera

Brachionus caudatus, Brachionus calycifiorus, Brachionus forficula, Brachionus diversicornis with the fresh water of the river, ·i.e., in Sites- 3 (Nasirhati Ghat), 4 (Ghushighata), 5 (Malancha), 6 (Kanmari) and 7 (Chota- Kalagachia).:

It appeared that zooplanktons were mainly present in the intermixing and marine water zone of the river where the marine water from the downstream mixed Table 3: Relationship ofphysico-chemical Site No.

Phyto Load

Zoo Load

pH

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

5.8 7.8 23.6 12

0 0 0.75 1.25 1 1.75 2.25 0 0

7.36 7.35 7.27 7.75 7.81 7.57 7.55 7.55 7.72

3004 32.8 27

2804 26

parameters with biological parameters of the river Salinity (ppm)

1 " --lA lA 1.9 4.3 7 11.6 11.8 12.9

BOD

(pp m)

(ppm)

Total-P (ppm):

Nitrate (ppm)

0 0 0 0 1.6 6.2 8

60 65 60 66 29 10 8 12 8.2

0.75 0.75 0.6 2.3 lA 1.3 1.3 1.3 1.2

4.8 1.8 2.9 5.6 6 5 lA 1.1 1.1

804 8.6

abundance of Nitrate in these sites, the microfiora or phytoplanktons were growing profusely by the uptake of nitrate, leading to a eutrophic condition of the water, where these phytoplanktons took up all the available dissolved oxygen from the water and ultimately leading to higher BOD levels.

The DO table (Table - 3) showed that Dissolved Oxygen was totally absent in the upstream sampling sites, i.e., Sites-1 (Haroa Bridge), 2 (Upstream Near Bagjola), 3 (Nasirhati Ghat) and 4 (Ghushighata). Therefore, -the BOD (Biochemical Oxygen Demand) level was very high in all these sites. This indicated that the water flowing through these 4 sites were heavily polluted. The phytoplankton load was found to be very high at all these sites. But the zooplanlcton community was lowest in these sites. Salinity of the river water increased as was advanced towards the more marine ecosystem before the river met the sea. The Phytoplankton community was thriving in the fresh water region and also in the inter-mixing zone of the river, which indicated that phytoplanktons preferred less saline condition for its growth and survival. However, Zooplanktons were present both in the intermixing zone and saline water zone. The Nitrate concentration was highest in the inter-mixing zone of fresh and marine water, followed by fresh water in the upstream than in the marine water sites. Phytoplanktons derived nutrition from Nitrate. Hence, the concentration of phytoplankton was noticeably higher in the inter-mixing zone ~s well as in the upstream fresh water sites. However, the zooplanlcton population was markedly higher in the sites with lower Nitrate levels in it, i.e. mainly in the upper inter-mixing and saline water zone. Another important observation was that the DO (Dissolved Oxygen) was absent and was lower in the Fresh water and inter-mixing zone. As there was

------------------------1

DO

CONCLUSION It was evident that as the advance~ent was made towards more saline water, the water quality improved further. Since, practically no purification efforts were carried off in this river manually, it could be asserted that the river was undergoing self-purification before joining the Raimangal River in the Sundarbans. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors are most grateful to the Director and Registrar of Institute of Environmental Studies and Wetland Management (IESWM) where this work was carried out. Indebtedness is also expressed to Department of Environment, Government of West Bengal, India for aupporting this study and to Mr. Shirsendu Ghosh, Mr. Jay Prakash Singh, Ms. Laxmi Gupta and Mr. Sumon Ghosh for their much needed guidance and assistance in carrying out this research work. SELECTED REFERENCES ADONI, A.D. 1985. Workbook on Limnology. MAB Committee, Department of Environment, New Delhi. 52

I~----------------------


Proc. Nat. Con! Biod., 49-53, 2014

AMERICAN PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOCIATION. 1998. Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater, 20th edition. APHA, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. BOALCH,G.T.ANDHARBOUR,D.S.1977. Unusual diatom off the coast of southwest England and its effect on fishing. Nature 269: 687-688. BEHERA, R.K., PANDA, R.B., SAHU, B.K., SINHA, B.K. AND NAYAK, A. 1989. Assessment of Brahmani river Part 1. Water quality upstream and downstream of Rourkela industrial complex. Pol. Res. 8: 195-200. BHOWMICK, B.N. AND SINGH, A.K. 1985. Phytoplankton population in relation to physicochemical factors of river Ganga at Patna. Ind. J Ecol. 12(2): 360-364. DAS, M. AND PANDA, T. 2010. Water Quality and Phytoplankton Population in Sewage Fed River of Mahanadi, Orissa, India. J Life Sci. 2(2): 81-85. BOLD, H.C. AND WYNNE, MJ. 1978. Introduction to the Algae - Structure and Reproduction. Prentice Hall of India Private Limited, New Delhi. DUTTA, N., MALHOTRA, r.c. AND BOSE, B.B. 1954. Hydrology and Seasonal fluctuations of the phytoplankton in the Hoogly estuary in IPFC. Proc.35-47. GOLDMAN, C.R. AND HORNE, A.J. 1983. Limnology. Japan: McGraw Hill Inc. GUPTA, R.K. 2005. Algal Flora ofDehradun District, Uttaranchal. Botanical Survey of India. MAHONEY, J.B. AND STEIMILE, F.w. 1980. Possible association of fishing gear clogging with a diatom bloom in the middle Atlantic Bight. Bull. NewJersyAcad. Sci. 25: 18-21. MAlTI, S.K., SAHA, S. AND SAHA, T. 2012. Planktonic diversity of river Bidyadhari during high and low tides near Malancha Ghat in West Bengal, India. Phytotaxonomy 5(12): 160-164. MISHRA, K.N. 2006. Impact of sugar industries

effluents of species diversity and algal productivity at Sahaganj. In: Human Pollution Natural Resources. Patna: Jaspal Prakashan, pp. 103-108. MISHRA, U.C. 2000. Ecological Investigation of River Gomati Under the Influence of Municipal Wastes of Jaunpur City. Ph.D. Thesis, Jaunpur, Y.B.S Purvanchan University. PALMER, C.M. 1969. A composite rating of algae tolerating organic pollution. J Phycol. 5: 75-82. PRADHAN, S.K., PATTANAIK, D. AND ROUT, S.P. 1998. Ground water quality-an assessment around a phosphatic fertilizer plant at Paradip. Ind. J Environ. Protect 18(10): 769-772. SAHA, L.C., CHOLADHARY, S.K. AND SINGH, N.K. 1985. Factors affecting phytoplankton productivity and density in the river Ganges at Bhagalpur. Geobios 12: 63-69. SAHA, T. AND GHOSH, P.B. 2003. Wise use of wetland in water conservation and advance irrigation methods - a case study. In: Technical volume of the National seminar on 'Role of Agricultural engineers in water conservation'. At Kolkata. The Institute of Engineers (India) West Bengal state center 74-78. TONAPI, G.T. 1980. Fresh Water Animals of India. Oxford and I.B.M. Publishing Company, New Delhi. TIWARI, T.N. AND ALl, M. 1987. River Pollution in Kathamandu valley variation of water quality index.JEP 1: 397-351. TRIPATHY, A.K. AND PANDEY, S.N. 1990. Water Pollution. Ashish Publishing, New Delhi. VOLLENWINDS, R.A. 1969. A manual on methods for measuring Planktonic composition in aquatic environment. In: IBP Hand Book No-12. Blackwell Scientific Publication, UK. p. 22. VYAS, N. AND NAMA, H.S. 1990. Polluted Ecology of Fresh Water Reservoir of Jodhpur. Ph.D. Thesis, Jodhpur, University ofJodhpur.

---------------'1153 1-------------