• Login
    View Item 
    •   DSpace Home
    • Institute's contributions
    • Scholarly literature
    • View Item
    •   DSpace Home
    • Institute's contributions
    • Scholarly literature
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Overcoming data constraints: Using macrobenthic functional feeding guilds for ecological assessment of an anthropogenically impacted estuary

    Thumbnail
    Date
    2026
    Author
    Vinitha, B.
    Sukumaran, S.
    Pillai, S.
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Abstract
    Progressive anthropogenic alteration of estuaries has caused extensive habitat degradation, leading to partial or complete loss of benthic communities. Evaluating the ecological health of such impacted systems is vital for effective environmental management and conservation. However, in estuaries cumulatively impacted by both natural variability and human pressures, low macrobenthic abundances and azoic conditions often fail to meet the data thresholds required for conventional taxonomic indices, limiting their reliability. To address these constraints, this study applied a Functional Feeding Guild (FFG) approach alongside the Evenness Feeding Diversity Index (jFD), to evaluate the ecological status of the heavily polluted Patalganga estuary over four years. Subsurface deposit feeders (SSDF), primarily pollution-tolerant oligochaetes, prevailed in highly degraded zones. Both natural (salinity) and anthropogenic (PHcsed) stressors emerged as key drivers of community and feeding guild distribution. The jFD effectively identified poor ecological quality in the upper estuary and moderate conditions in the lower zones, demonstrating the utility of functional indices in assessing systems subject to strong anthropogenic stress. The results underscore the value of integrating functional and structural indicators with multivariate analyses for accurate ecological assessments, especially in data-limited environments, and emphasize the importance of further research on functional traits to refine ecological quality evaluations and management strategies
    URI
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rsma.2026.104778
    http://drs.nio.res.in/drs/handle/2264/9608
    Collections
    • Scholarly literature [9282]

    DSpace software copyright © 2002-2016  DuraSpace
    Contact Us | Send Feedback
    Theme by 
    Atmire NV
     

     

    Browse

    All of DSpaceCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjects

    My Account

    LoginRegister

    DSpace software copyright © 2002-2016  DuraSpace
    Contact Us | Send Feedback
    Theme by 
    Atmire NV