Coastal water quality impact on community structure and genotoxicity of marine zooplankton
2020
Thirunavukkarasu, Subramani | Vasanthi, Rajkumar | Karunasagaran, Gunasagaran | Munuswamy, Natesan
The present study emphasizes the possible impact of coastal water quality on marine zooplankton community from six different sampling sites of south India (Kalpakkam, Nemmeli, Muttukadu, Kasimedu, Ennore and Kattupalli). Water Samples were collected in the sampling sites and physicochemical parameters were studied. The results showed significant variations in the concentration and distribution pattern of selected physicochemical parameters (temperatures, pH, salinity, DO, NO⁻³, NO⁻², NH₃, PO₄³⁻ and SiO₂) and heavy metals (Ni, Cu, Zn, Pb, Fe, Mg, Co, and Cr). The concentration of nutrients and trace elements were reported high at site IV (Kasimedu) and low at site II (Nemmeli). Further, diversity indices showed maximum Shannon_H and Simpson_1-D indexes (H = 3.492; D = 0.966) at site IV (Kasimedu). Similarly, low diversity indices (H = 3.128; D = 0.9508) was registered at site II (Nemmeli) and site III (Muttukadu), indicating plankton population was attracted by high concentration of nutrients loads in the study areas. Finally, genotoxicity (genomic integrity) was assessed by DNA fragmentation and alkaline comet assay, which resulted in maximum genomic integrity loss for the sample collected from Kalpakkam (42.84 ± 08.38), Ennore (41.44 ± 06.59), and Kasimedu (39.5 ± 09.68) sites. The results revealed that the maximum heavy metal concentration has impact on the zooplankton population as evidence from DNA fragmentation compared with that of freshly hatched out Artemia nauplii as control. Hence, the present investigation documents the alarming threat in coastal water quality which will have an impact on the zooplankton community in selected coastal zones.
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