Record Details

Bottom dwelling animals: Benthos

DRS at CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography

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Field Value
 
Title Bottom dwelling animals: Benthos
 
Creator Ingole, B.S.
 
Subject benthos
coasts
beaches
coastal zone
marine resources
biodiversity
ecosystems
biomass
 
Description The beaches of Goa are predominantly sandy, and occupy about 4000 ha of area along the north-south coastline. An important component of the sandy beaches in Goa re the sand dunes in the supralittoral region. The coastal region includes the intertidal (shore and beach), sub tidal and offshore region. The coastal zone has the highest marine resources, the greatest concentration and diversity of marine life and critical habitats. It also has the most serious threats from the land-based activities. At the bottom/sediment dwelling animal communities are collectively termed as 'BENTHOS'. This extremely valuable component of the marine environment consumes the sediment organic matter from the overlying water column and effectively converts into benthic biomass. Benthos also play a vital role in the marine food cahin and in the recycling of essential lifesustaining elements like carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus in the marine ecosystem. Besides, benthos are considered the best indicators of environmental stress or aquatic pollution and some of the macrobenthic invertebrates are widely used in 'biomonitoring programmes' both as surveillance and compliance in order to assess the health of environment.
 
Date 2008-07-02T04:51:41Z
2008-07-02T04:51:41Z
2004
 
Type Book Chapter
 
Identifier Know our shore: Goa, ed. by: Untawale, A.G. 83-95p.
http://drs.nio.org/drs/handle/2264/1096
 
Language en
 
Rights Copyright [2004]. It is tried to respect the rights of the copyright holders to the best of the knowledge. If it is brought to our notice that the rights are violated then the item would be withdrawn.
 
Publisher WWF for Nature-India