Spatial and temporal variation of zooplankton assemblage in the mining-impacted stretch of Ganga River, Uttarakhand, India

Abstract

The spatial and temporal variation in the distribution, abundance and assemblage structure of zooplankton were examined in a mining-impacted stretch of river Ganga. The collection of samples has been done from three different sampling zones such as Z1 (Chandi Bridge Ghat) as reference zone, Z2 (Shyampur), and Z3 (Bisanpur) as mining-intruded area from May 2017 to April 2018. During the analysis, twenty-eight species of zooplankton kindred to four groups mainly Rotifera (ten species), Protozoa (five species), Cladocera (eight species), and Copepoda (five species) were identified. In the course of analysis, it was observed that Rotifera were dominant (43.49 %) followed by Cladocera (19.58 %), Protozoa (18.31 %), and Copepoda (18.62 %). The results showed that the distribution and abundance of zooplankton fluctuated more at Z1 (reference zone) as compared with Z2 and Z3 (mining-intruded zones). The diversity indices also indicated the higher richness, abundance, and evenness of zooplankton ranging from 3.145 to 3.180 at Z1, 3.081 to 3.129 at Z2, and 3.130 to 3.175 at Z3. The canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) showed positive and negative correlation between the zooplankton and water quality of the river Ganga. The present study shows that the anthropogenic activities such as river bed mining disturbed the water quality through enhancing the turbidity and nutrients load in the aquatic system. However, these changes in water quality significantly affected the distribution and abundance of zooplankton.

Water Quality and Plankton Assessment of Eme River, Umuahia, Southeast Nigeria

“…The composition of the zooplankton group was dominated by Rotifer followed by Cladocera, Protozoa and Copepod as observed by Kamboj and Kamboj [76] in the mining-impacted stretch of Ganga River, India. Rotifer was also reported as the dominant group in Ikpa and Odot Streams in South-South Nigeria that is subjected to intense sand mining [38,65].…”

Anthropogenic influence on water quality and phytoplankton diversity of upper Ganga basin: A case study of Ganga River and its major tributaries

“…Kamboj and Kamboj (2020) also reported that various developmental activity including River bed mining possessed an impact on aquatic organisms. The ecological wellbeing of a specific ecosystem hinge upon temporal and spatial distribution, composition of genera, abundance, and biomass of phytoplankton (Khattak et al., 2005).…”

“…Different concentrations of phosphate give an indication of the amount of nutrient levels and level of eutrophication of the freshwater ecosystem (Christensen et al., 2011; Kamboj & Kamboj, 2020; Kumar et al., 2018). The mean values of sulphate were within the acceptable limit at all sampling stations in upper Ganga basin and were ranged from 0.2 mg/L at sampling station 1 and 2 to 0.6 mg/L at sampling station 8 (Figure 10).…”

An overview on enormous effect of hazardous wastes on water components and their management

“…Due to which the dissolved oxygen in the water bodies gets hindered and the number of bio-indicator organisms such as Euglena, Volvox, Vaucheria, Paramecium etc. are high and the fresh water organisms such as Spirogyra, Closterium, Cladophera, Daphnia and Diatoms are found in fewer number thus resulting in the loss of aquatic life (Kamboj and Kamboj, 2020).…”