An Appraisal of Benthic Meiofaunal Diversity and Distribution along Estuaries of Peninsular India

Author: Sumesh S. and Abraham, K.M.

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Abstract

One of the most phyletically diverse fauna, the meiofauna of sediments is now focused for ecological monitoring, bioreactors, bioturbators and many more. Now a days meiofaunal researches are gaining popularity as a result of increasing use of aquatic ecosystems and resources, advancing collaborative, multi-disciplinary scientific studies on ecosystem dynamics, functions and processes is becoming more pertinent. Meiobenthology is gaining importance as it deals with the role of meiobenthos in ecosystem function, taxonomy, systematics and evolution of meiobenthos, use of meiobenthos within the assessment of environmental consequences and response of meiobenthos to environmental change. Meiobenthos is another widely distributed biodiversity group as it differs with environment like freshwater, estuarine and marine ecosystems and main works are mainly associated with marine as well as estuarine environments of which the studies from estuarine meiobenthic diversity and distribution are moderate from Indian subcontinent. This review attempts to compile studies on diversity and distribution of benthic meiofauna along estuaries of peninsular India using available data from internet based indexing/abstracting sources.

Keywords

Benthos, Meiobenthos, Nematodes, Biodiversity

Conclusion

Once, the reason for meiofaunal research being neglected was due to its small size and the perception that small organisms are hard to study and of limited ecological importance. Even though a number of studies have been emanated on meiobenthos from different part of the world, studies and literature from Indian subcontinent was comparatively less due to various reasons including demand for expertise in taxonomy of diverse invertebrate and vertebrate groups spread over different habitats like marine, estuarine and freshwater benthic ecosystems. However, in India, meiofaunal study predominantly focused Nematoda and Harpacticoida (Copepod) and some extend in Polychaeta and majority of the existing works are also not undergone to level of species. Most of the studies before 20th century on meiofaunal account were only on ecological line, in spite of it the qualitative and quantitative research works using appropriate sampling devices is comparatively recent. Unavailability of satisfactory taxonomic description was one of the challenge researchers faced. Owing to the incorrect available sources it was difficult for them to get the same organism from their study sites. Another difficulty associated with meiofaunal taxonomy was their delicate nature which makes morphological study without preservation strenuous. Hence they had to euthanize the organisms before their work. From the review it is apparent that meiofaunal research need a lot of manpower and effort must be taken to create fruitful data so that the scientific community as well as common people will be benefited.

References

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How to cite this article

Sumesh S. and Abraham, K.M. (2023). An Appraisal of Benthic Meiofaunal Diversity and Distribution along Estuaries of Peninsular India. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 15(3): 833-838.