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Diversity pattern ofmacrozoobenthos and their relationwith qualitative characteristics of riverYamuna inDoon valleyUttarakhand

Fouzia Ishaq, D.R.Khanna, Amir Khan

Macrozoobenthos comprises of an important group of aquatic fauna byway of their contribution to ecosystem stability, besides acting as potential bioindicators of trophic status. Being efficient energy converters, they constitute an important link in the aquatic foodweb. In viewof importance of such an aquatic bioresource on one hand and scarcity of information about them, on the other, the present study aimed at working out the species composition and diversity Macrozoobenthos of the River Yamuna in Uttarakhand and their relation to several physico-chemical parameters. The sampleswere collected fromthree sampling stations (Kalsi S1,Dakpathar S2 andAsan Lake S3) fromAugust 2011 toMarch 2012. The data collected on various physico-chemical parameters and benthic fauna showed slight sitespecific fluctuations. The present study showed that the temperature, water velocity, turbidity and dissolved oxygen and nature and size of the bottom substrates do play amajor role in determining themacro-invertebrate diversity of riverYamuna. The benthic faunawas comprised of 27 genera belonging to 7 orders which mostly include Ephemeroptera, Diptera, Coleoptera, Hemiptera, Plecoptera,Odonata and Trichoptera. The total benthic diversity was found highest at S1 (307 ind/m2) followed by S2 (286.5) and S3 (268.8) respectively. The ecological relevance of the measured physico-chemical parameters was investigated by comparing their degree of correlation with macrozoobenthic density and diversity and it was revealed that the macroinvertebrate showed a fairly good relation with physico-chemical attributes and the values of date obtained reflected the conditions existing in the River Yamuna in terms of the quality and quantity of the biota.