New Records of Octocorallia (Order: Pennatulacea) from Indian Waters.

Present paper dealt with three species viz. Virgularia gustaviana, Virgularia mirabilis and Cavernularia pusilla under the order Pennatulacea reported from Andaman and Nicobar Islands are described and illustrated. They are new distributional recorded to Indian waters.

Fouling communities on ship wreck site in the Gulf of Mannar, India.

The Gulf of Mannar is one of the world’s richest marine biospheres and occupies an area of 10,500 sq.km. Twenty one coral reef islands and small patchy reefs are present between Lat. 800 47’N and Long. 780 12’ E to Lat. 900 15’ N and Long. 790 14’ E. from Pamban to Thoothukudi as an arc. These islands possess a very interesting heterogeneous group of fauna and flora. The study was conducted on a twenty year old ship wreck in the Gulf of Mannar, India. During low tides, remnants of the ship are exposed to about 1.5 meters above the water surface. The entire ship wreck is regarded as an artificial reef that harbors corals, fishes and other fauna. Artificial reefs are beneficial in reef conservation and rehabilitation efforts. Successions of artificial reef communities were preliminarily studied using the Line and Belt transect method to assess the composition of benthic organisms like soft corals (25.6 %) and live corals (23.1 %). The abundance of several common reef fishes is also reported.

Seasonal variations of trace metal accumulation on coral reef in Gulf of Mannar, India.

Investication of trace metal occumulation on coral and reef environment (sediment and water) of the Gulf of Mannar biosphere reserve was studied during July 2007 to June 2008. The samples were collected for analyzing from Thoothukudi and Vembar group of Islands, Gulf of Mannar. The concentration of trace metal in the water are in the order of Fe > Pb > Zn > As > Mn > Cd > Cu and in sediment in the order of Fe > Mn > Pb > Zn > Cu >Cd and in coral rubbles in the order of Fe > Mn > Pb > Zn > Cu > Cd. In the waters the iron ranks first and copper ranks last; in the sediment iron ranks first in concentration and cadmium ranks the last. In corals the iron ranks first and cadmium ranks the last in concentration and during the entire study periods. SPSS two tailed Correlation coefficients between the months and the temporal variablilities of heavy metals were assessed using the monthly data for each component in all stations and analysis of variances (f values) for the water, sediment and coral rubbles between the stations and month during the study period. Conclude that the values recorded at Thoothukdi group of islands were little higher than the Vembar group of islands, and it might be due to discharges pumped from the industrial belt of Thoothukudi, domestic sewages from Thoothukudi town, harbour activities and thermal power plant operation along the southern side of the Gulf of Mannar.