Ecological energetics of benthic communities of an estuarine system of the west coast of India

Abstract

An attempt has been made to measure the biomass and quantify the production rates of different size groups of benthic organisms. The average annual production rates of microphytobenthos, meiobenthos and macrobenthos were estimated to be 42.68, 6.19 and 9.20 gCm/2, respectively. Meiofaunal production was greatly influenced by the presence of large sized nematodes and ostracods, while macrobenthic production was largely constituted by deposit and filter feeding forms such as polychaetes and bivalves. Production of smaller groups of organisms appears to be insufficient to meet the nutritional requirements of the larger faunal groups. Thus it was inferred that the macrobenthic production gets a great deal of its energy source from the detritus rich sediment