Effect of Industrial Effluents from Iron and Steel Company on Benthic Macroinvertebrate Communities of Fresh Water Ponds in India

Abstract

At present, most of the water bodies including ponds have been seriously polluted by several industrial effluents. Benthic macroinvertebrates which are the main faunal component and play an important role in nutrient recycling and flowing of energy in aquatic ecosystem and are primarily affected by the polluted industrial effluents. Here, we have investigated the effect of industrial effluent discharges on water quality and biodiversity of benthic macroinvertebrates in fresh water ponds in West Bengal, India. Principal Component Analysis reveals that the four industrial effluent reach ponds contains higher values of physico-chemical parameters such as Hardness, Fluoride, Cyanide, Free carbon dioxide, Total suspended solid, Inorganic nitrogen, Phosphate, Hydrogen sulphide, Mercury and lower values of Dissolve Oxygen & Primary Productivity than one controlled pond. Pollution sensitive groups (e.g., Ephemeroptera, some of Hemiptera and Arachnids) are associated to the controlled pond and more tolerant groups (e.g., Chironomidae, Culicidae, Syriphidae) have greater abundance in the polluted ponds. Canonical Correspondence Analysis indicates that such phico- chemical parameters have higher influence in the distribution and abundance of macroinvertebrates. The percentage of functional feeding groups like Collector- Gatherers and Collector – Filters are high and biodiversity indices are low in industrially effluent reach ponds.