Waterbodies receiving effluents from seafood processing plants might experience severe eutrophication. The present study was carried out to assess the impacts of effluent discharges on water quality and phytoplankton populations in the Vembanad‐kol Wetland, located adjacent to seafood processing industries. It was conducted in the Cherthala–Aroor–Edakochi coastal belt of Vembanad Wetland, India, a region containing many processing plants. The trophic status of the lake was assessed with the Carlton trophic state index. Hypereutrophic conditions were observed more in the interconnected channels than in the main waterbody. There was a dominance of Bacillariophyceae, followed by Chlorophyceae, Cyanophyceae and Dinophyceae. Bacillariophyceae, Chlorophyceae and Cyanophyceae were comparatively higher in the interconnected channels, whereas Dinophyceae was high in the main body of the lake. There is a shift in dominance from Chlorophyceae to Cyanophyceae in the interconnected channels, especially in the southern and central portion of the lake. There was a dominance of Cyanophyceae over Chlorophyceae, especially in the interconnected channels, being a characteristic of polluted water. Nitzschia sp and Navicula sp were abundant in the class Bacillariophyceae. The dominant species in the class Dinophyceae was Ceratium sp, which is known to proliferate in nutrient‐rich waters. The dominant members of the class Chlorophyceae were Ankistrodesmus sp and Scenedesmus sp. Furthermore, Oscillatoria and Phormidium were higher in number in the class Cyanophyceae, indicating the presence of pollutants of biological origin. Waste discharges from the seafood processing industry are a major factor contributing to an alarming rate of organic pollution and subsequent eutrophication in the lake. The results of the present study highlight that further expansion of the seafood industry in the Cherthala–Aroor–Edakochi coastal belt of Vembanad Lake is not desirable.
Wetlands are under threat from the inflow of urban pollutants on a daily basis. The phytoplankton community is the most affected by increasing eutrophication. Biodiversity based on species richness and evenness can reflect the phytoplankton community composition, as well as describing the water pollution impacts on biotic communities. Eutrophication is a major problem in tropical wetland systems because they receive various waste discharges. Therefore, an attempt was made in this study to analyse the eutrophication status of a tropical wetland (part of the Vembanad Wetland in Cherthala‐Aroor‐Edakochi coastal belt, Kerala) that is being affected by seafood effluent discharges. Alpha indices (Shannon–Weiner Diversity Index; Simpson Index) and beta diversity (Jaccard Index and Sorensen Index) were used to identify appropriate diversity index in a eutrophic environment. Analysis of the plankton populations indicated significant variations among the wetland sampling sites, with the highest percentage of pollution indicators observed in the interconnected channels than in the main portion of the wetland. The results of this study also reveal that a dangerous level of reduction in Chlorophyceae occurred which, in turn, affects the wetland primary productivity. If this situation continues, the wetland will become dominated by fewer, more pollution‐tolerant species over time, indicating serious attention must be given to stopping the loss of diversity in the wetland. This study revealed that β diversity indices are more suitable for studying diversity in a eutrophic wetland system than α diversity indices, mainly because β diversity indices indirectly consider the pollution indicator species, whereas the Shannon Index fails to do so. This study also notes the importance of using the Simpson Index over the Shannon Index for eutrophic waterbodies.
Kaempferia galanga L. is a pharmaceutically and traditionally important medicinal plant. Its rhizomes are having potential demand in ayurvedic drug preparation. The study presented here reports the essential oil components analysed using GC-MS in three samples of K. galanga such as the microrhizomes raised through tissue culture technique, the mini rhizomes harvested from the field transferred tissue culture-derived plants and the mother rhizomes, which are the stock plants (control). Potent bioactive compounds like ethyl-p-methoxycinnamate, ethyl cinnamate, borneol and pentadecane were detected in the samples. The amount ethyl p- methoxycinnamate was very high in microrhizome (58.088%) and minirhizome oil (31.24%) as compared to in vivo mother rhizome. The amount of ethlyl cinnamate was 9.21% in microrhizome oil and it increased to 39.42% in minirhizome oil. Pentadecane recorded 1.482% in microrhizome and its amount increased to 4.49% in minirhizome oil, while the amount was noticed in in vivo mother rhizome. Borneol was analysed from micro (1.349%) and minirhizome oil (3.57%) samples but it was absent in mother rhizome. In our study, in vitro microrhizome and minirhizomes essential oil depicted superior quality in terms of the bioactive compounds and was on par with the mother rhizome oil. The in vitro production methodology developed here would help in the large scale production of pharmacologically important components from K. galanga.
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