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Impact assessment of barge trafficking on phytoplankton abundance and Chl a concentration, in River Ganga, India.

ABSTRACT: Impact of barge movement on phytoplankton abundance and biomass was assessed in the lower stretch of river Ganga, popularly known as Bhagirathi-Hooghly river, during April 2016 to March, 2017. Based on the magnitude of tide, intensity of shipping and boating activities, the stretch from Baranagar to Lalbag (278 km), located at latitude (22°38'33.41"N to 24°10'59.75"N) and longitude (88°21'21.29"E to 88°16'5.65"E) was divided into three zones viz. zone-I (Baranagar to Barrackpore), zone II (Triveni to Balagarh) and zone III (Nabadweep to Lalbag). Water samples were collected randomly from six stations covering 22 barge movements at their passage at three different time intervals viz., 30 minutes before 'barge movement', during 'barge movement' and 30 minutes after 'barge movement'. Analysis revealed the presence of 52 phytoplankton taxa belonged to 5 phylum during the study period. The abundance of phytoplankton was highest in zone-I followed by zone III and the zone II. A 44% decrease (1,997 ±1,510 ul-1) in phytoplankton abundance was observed during 'barge movement' with respect to normal condition (3,513 ± 2,239 ul-1) which could be due to propeller turbulence in the passage. Cell damage study revealed 21% damage in phytoplankton cell structure in 'during barge' followed by 'after barge' (10%) condition compared to natural state (6%). Study revealed that phytoplankton biomass (Chlorophyll a) was influenced by 'barge movement' in the sampling stretches and the impact was assessed by one way ANOVA. The effect was found significant at Barrackpore (p <0.01), Triveni (p <0.01), Balagarh (p <0.01) and Lalbag (p <0.01) where as it was insignificant at Baranagar and Nabadweep, which may be due to continuous and existing boat trafficking at Baranagar and Nabadweep. Two way ANOVA computed using 'barge movement' and sampling stations showed significant (p<0.01) effect on magnitude of Chl a concentrations in the sampling locations. Thus, the 'barge movement' influenced phytoplankton abundance and biomass, it had a detrimental effect on phytoplankton cell architecture also. The data set of this work serves as foundation information to understand the ecological implications augmented barge induced environmental disturbances in waterways. This is the first such study which depicts the impact of 'barge movement' on aquatic food chain linkages in Bhagirathi- Hooghly river.

SUBMITTER: Das Sarkar S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6726143 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Impact assessment of barge trafficking on phytoplankton abundance and Chl a concentration, in River Ganga, India.

Das Sarkar Soma S Naskar Malay M Gogoi Pranab P Raman Rohan Kumar RK Manna Ranjan Kumar RK Samanta Srikanta S Mohanty Bimal Prasanna BP Das Basanta Kumar BK

PloS one 20190904 9

Impact of barge movement on phytoplankton abundance and biomass was assessed in the lower stretch of river Ganga, popularly known as Bhagirathi-Hooghly river, during April 2016 to March, 2017. Based on the magnitude of tide, intensity of shipping and boating activities, the stretch from Baranagar to Lalbag (278 km), located at latitude (22°38'33.41"N to 24°10'59.75"N) and longitude (88°21'21.29"E to 88°16'5.65"E) was divided into three zones viz. zone-I (Baranagar to Barrackpore), zone II (Trive ...[more]

PMID: 31483812

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Project description:Morphometric differences were investigated among five fish species of subfamily Barbinae from the Ganga river system through traditional morphometrics and the truss network system. Species taken into account were Puntius chola (Hamilton 1822), Puntius sophore (Hamilton 1822), Pethia ticto (Hamilton 1822), Pethia conchonius (Hamilton 1822) and Systomus sarana (Hamilton 1822). Although, taxonomists carefully examine external body features to discriminate these species, there is still a risk of misidentification during a visual assessment. In the present study, the traditional morphological analysis included 22 morphometric measurements and 10 meristic counts. Truss network system of 14 landmarks was interconnected to yield 91 distance variables. The principal component analysis (PCA), discriminant function analysis (DFA) and cluster analysis (CA) were employed in order to determine morphometric variations. In traditional analysis, 29 characters out of 32 were found significant (p<0.05). Eight principal components were extracted through PCA explaining 85.30% of the total variance in samples, DFA correctly classified 100.0% of original grouped cases and 100.0% of cross-validated grouped cases. Truss analysis showed that all the 90 characters were significant (p<0.05). PCA extracted four principal components explaining 96.45% of the total variance. DFA correctly classified 96.1% of original grouped cases and 92.1% of cross-validated grouped cases. The results acquired from the traditional as well as truss analyses indicate significant morphometric heterogeneity. However, variations are not the same for the two different methods (traditional and truss) employed for the analyses. Shape differences among species were evident from relative warps (RW) supporting truss network analysis. Geometric morphometric methods (GMM), but limited use of Procrustes methods revealed even very small dissimilarity between groups. In spite of determining the morphometric differentiation among species, the present study also provides a useful insight on the application and complementary role of truss analysis with traditional morphometric analysis in the correct classification of the selected species.

Dataset Information

Impact assessment of barge trafficking on phytoplankton abundance and Chl a concentration, in River Ganga, India.

Publications

Impact assessment of barge trafficking on phytoplankton abundance and Chl a concentration, in River Ganga, India.

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