Abstract
The present paper examines the functional diversity-environment relation in a placer rich tropical bay. Understanding the environmental variables that determine the biodiversity pattern will help in the effective conservation plans of coastal habitat. However, few studies have been carried out on the biodiversity-environment relation from the diverse tropical coastal ecosystem. The geographic location of Kalbadevi Bay along the west coast of India provides an opportunity to study the functional diversity pattern of macrofauna along an environmental gradient. Additionally, the area is also a potential placer mining site. Seasonal sampling was carried out for macrofauna and environmental variables. Macrofaunal functional diversity showed significant temporal variation related to the environmental parameters. The most important environmental variables were organic matter and sediment texture. Filter feeders dominated during postmonsoon which is a period when the water column is enriched with sinking detritus. The deposit feeders which rapidly ingest the settled detritus and also transport it to deeper sediment for the subsurface deposit feeders dominated during premonsoon. Abundance of carnivores was high during premonsoon, a response to increase in food in terms of deposit feeders. The result thus indicates that the temporal environmental variation influenced the macrofaunal functional diversity pattern in the Kalbadevi Bay.
Highlights
Marine coastal ecosystem is unique due to the dynamic interaction with atmospheric and terrestrial system
principal-components analysis (PCA) analysis on environmental parameters resulted in three components that explained 61% variability (Table 2)
The highest positive values on PC1 were found for sand, D50, whereas PRT, organic carbon (OC), mud, and W Chl a had the highest negative loading
Summary
Marine coastal ecosystem is unique due to the dynamic interaction with atmospheric and terrestrial system This interaction results in high biological productivity and resources of important economic value. Several of the world’s important minerals have been obtained from placer minerals [2] Such coastal areas are of particular interest, as they are subjected to extremely variable environmental condition due to fluctuations in river inputs, which are in turn controlled by climatic conditions. These environmental gradients play an important role in structuring the benthic community of the region and in turn the ecosystem functioning
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