Polychaete community of a marine protected area along the west coast of India- Prior and post the tropical cyclone Phyan
View/ Open
Date
2016Author
Sukumaran, S.
Vijapure, T.
Kubal, P.
Mulik, J.
Rokade, M.A.
Salvi, S.
Thomas, J.
Naidu, V.S.
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Tropical cyclones are extreme random meteorological events that can have profound implications to coastal biodiversities. Given that the frequency, intensity and duration of these
events are poised to increase due to the global climate change, understanding the ecological impacts of such erratic occurrences becomes imperative to devise better management
strategies. The eventful passage of the tropical cyclone, Phyan, along the northwestern
coast of India in November 2009, coupled with the availability of historical data presented a
rare opportunity to elucidate the consequences on the polychaete assemblages of the Malvan Marine Sanctuary and their subsequent recovery. This was achieved by comparison of
the pre- and post-Phyan seasonal data from four different sites in and around the Sanctuary.
MDS analyses and polychaete community parameters suggested conspicuous cyclone
related effects on the polychaete community characteristics in the three outer stations off
Malvan, whereas the relatively protected bay station remained more or less unscathed.
Impacts, attributable to the cyclone apart from seasonal variations, included changes in
polychaete composition, reductions in total polychaete density, species diversity, evenness
and functional groups. Dominance of the opportunistic polychaete, Paraprionospiopatiens
was all pervasive just after Phyan, resulting in poor diversity and evenness values. In the
outer stations, diverse feeding modes present prior to the cyclone were replaced by microphagous feeders post the disturbance. However, the study also observed complete recovery as substantiated by the improvement inpolychaete density, diversity indices and reinstatement of multiple feeding guilds in affected areas. This resilience of the coastal waters
off Malvan is attributed to its marine protected status, implying that reduced human interference aided rapid revival of damaged ecosystems.
Collections
- Scholarly literature [8865]