Seasonal Variation of Meiobenthic Fauna Specially Nematode, Copepoda and Ostracoda at Digha Coastal Belt, Midnapore (East), West Bengal, India

Abstract

Meiofauna are known to be sensitive important bio-indicators of environmental perturbations. They may play very important role in the tropic level of any marine estuary coastal environment and become a main topic in marine ecology. Present study was initiated at one intertidal coastal belt along ride the coast of Digha of Midnapore (East) district, West Bengal, India in order to record the seasonal dynamics of meiobenthic faunal community along with cross shore distribution pattern. Environmental parameters like temperature, salinity, pH, DO and texture of the soil have been found to play an essential role to determine density and distribution of meiobenthic interstitial fauna. Maximum density of meiobenthic fauna are recorded at Low Tide Level (LTL) rather than High Tide Level (HTL). Sediment sample analysis result observed that upper portion rich in diversity of meiobenthic fauna than lower portion due to the revelation of special nutritional sources, other physio chemical factors and inundation for the increase and survival of the biotic community. Nematoda represent a large amount of dominant group among the meiobenthic faunal community of the study site.