Impact of Iron Ore Tailing on Foraminifera of the Uppateru River Estuary, East Coast of India

Abstract

Benthic foraminiferal assemblages have been used to determine the effects of Iran ore tailing pollution on the marine environment. The present paper attempts to unveil pollution impact as responded by foraminiferal species of Uppateru estuary. The faunal data thus generated is compared with earlier data sets for possible adverse effects. There has been substantial reduction in total foraminiferal number (TFN), from 574 in 2006 to 213 in 2008 species (st.no.3) per10 gram sediment. Even the total species number (TSN) decreased from 27 in (st.no.8) 2006 to 8 (st.no.1) in 2008. Ammonia accounted for its share (68%), followed by Elphidium (7.4%) and Quinqueloculina (6.5%). These genera are considered to be robust and opportunistic type in the study area. This faunal variation in terms of density (TFN) may be owing to the pollution caused by iron ore tailing. This study also supports the view that benthic foraminiferal biota can be used as a tool to monitor marine pollution in general and estuarine environment in specific

Abundance and Ecology of EndemicAsterorotalia trispinosafrom the Western Bay of Bengal: Implications for its Application as a Paleomonsoon Proxy

“…The preference of A. trispinosa for warmer water is further confirmed by the strong positive correlation between the relative abundance of both the living (correlation = 0.4705) and total (correlation = 0.3130) A. trispinosa and ambient seawater temperature. The earlier higher abundance of A. trispinosa was observed in the samples collected during pre-monsoon rather than in the postmonsoon period (Gandhi and Solai, 2010;Jayaraju et al, 2011). The relative abundance was higher at stations with more than 36 psu salinity (Jayaraju et al, 2011).…”

“…The earlier higher abundance of A. trispinosa was observed in the samples collected during pre-monsoon rather than in the postmonsoon period (Gandhi and Solai, 2010;Jayaraju et al, 2011). The relative abundance was higher at stations with more than 36 psu salinity (Jayaraju et al, 2011). The higher abundance during pre-monsoon season at stations having comparatively higher salinity suggests that A. trispinosa prefers relatively warm water.…”

“…In contrast to that, at a few other places, A. trispinosa was reported from comparatively fine-grained silty and clayey substrate (Gandhi et al, 2014;Yahya et al, 2014). In the middle of the Uppateru River Estuary, on the east coast of India, A. trispinosa were abundant in medium-grained sediments, and their population decreased both seaward and upstream of the rivermouth, suggesting a close relationship between sediment grain size and its abundance (Jayaraju et al, 2011). In the Malacca Strait off Malaysia, Asterorotalia is abundant in clayey and silty sediments (Yahya et al, 2014).…”

“…However, recently, Rao et al (2013) studied the ecology of A. trispinosa from Muthupet Lagoon in the east coast of India and reported that this species is euryhaline rather than a typically marine fauna, but with an ability to tolerate salinity only as low as 29 psu. Additionally, the substrate preference of A. trispinosa is also debated with several workers reporting it being dominant in fine-grained silty to muddy substrates and others reporting its abundant presence in the medium grained (silty-sand) substrates (Jayaraju et al, 2011). The majority of previous studies on the ecology of A. trispinosa from the eastern continental margin of India, a fresh water influx dominated region of the bay, are based on samples collected from very shallow water beach, estuarine, lagoon and inner shelf environments.…”

Opportunities and challenges in incorporating benthic foraminifera in marine and coastal environmental biomonitoring of soft sediments: from science to regulation and practice

“…Although benthic foraminifera are a relevant component of the benthic fauna and hold many ecological traits ideal for environmental biomonitoring, they have not yet been included as biotic indicators in the Brazilian environmental guidelines. Benthic foraminifera are ameboid protists that: (a) constitute the most abundant and widespread unicellular organisms of the meiofauna in the modern oceans (Murray, 2007;Sen Gupta, 1999), inhabiting from the deep sea to transitional environments (brackish water lagoons, estuaries, mangroves, saltmarshes) and even rarely in freshwater streams and lakes (Boltovskoy et al, 1980;Siemensma et al, 2017;Wylezich et al, 2014); (b) play a key role in the functioning of the benthic environment, contributing to bioturbation, seafloor ventilation, carbon and nitrogen geochemical cycle (Groß, 2002;Cesbron et al, 2016;Piña-Ochoa et al, 2010); (c) generally have a short reproductive and life cycle, and therefore, their responses to environmental change are rapid, being considered environmental sentinels (Kramer & Botterweg, 1991;Schönfeld et al, 2012); (d) some species can tolerate adverse environmental conditions, while others are more sensitive (Bouchet et al, 2007;;Jayaraju et al, 2011;Martins et al, 2017;Prazeres et al, 2017;Vidović et al, 2014); (e) are easy and cheap to collect and process, and are often found in high density in small samples (a few cm 3 ), providing an adequate basis for statistical studies (Armynot du Châtelet et al, 2004); and (f) their tests can be preserved in the sediments. This not only makes them a possible tool for paleoecological and paleoenvironmental reconstructions (Hayward et al, 2004;Alve et al, 2009;Dolven et al, 2013;Armynot du Châtelet et al, 2018a, b) but also as an indicator of pre-impact conditions (e.g., Alve, 1991;Alve et al, 2009;Dolven et al, 2013;Francescangeli et al, 2016).…”