Impact of a catastrophic flood on the heavy metal pollution status and the concurrent responses of the bentho-pelagic community in a tropical monsoonal estuary.

Consequences of a catastrophic flood on the habitat quality and the concurrent responses of the bentho-pelagic community were studied in Cochin estuary, a eutrophic estuary along the southwest coast of India. The episodic flood in 2018 led to a marked decline in the dissolved nutrients and heavy metal concentrations in water and sediments of the estuary. The pre-flood phytoplankton abundance dominated by a bloom-forming species Cerataulina bicornis experienced a significant drop after the flood. Contrarily, zooplankton and macrobenthos responded favorably towards the flood-imposed habitat alterations. Higher susceptibility to heavy metal pollution and increased grazing pressure from gelatinous carnivores restricted the abundance of Copepoda, the dominant zooplankton taxon during pre-flood. The lower heavy metal concentration in the sediment after the flood favored higher macrobenthic abundance and diversity with a conspicuous change in the community structure from opportunistic polychaetes, indicators of pollution to molluscans and crustaceans, indicators of the healthy benthic zones.

Biotic interaction as the triggering factor for blooms under favourable conditions in tropical estuarine systems.

The formation of harmful algal blooms (HABs) in the marine environment is detrimental to the ecosystem function affecting the sequence of biological events. Hence, the present study is focused on the seasonal distribution of HAB-forming diatoms and dinoflagellates and their ecological interactions in two tropical estuaries, namely Chapora and Sal in the west coast of India. A total of 17 species of diatoms belonging to nine genera and 13 species of dinoflagellates belonging to eight genera were recorded from the present study (monsoon and non-monsoon season). The redundancy analysis (RDA) revealed that the salinity and phosphate concentration influence the distribution of HAB-forming diatoms and dinoflagellates in both the estuaries. Out of 13 species of dinoflagellates observed, six species are known as potentially toxic such as Alexandrium minutum, A. tamarense, A. pseudogonyaulax, Cochlodinium polykrikoides, Prorocentrum micans and Gonyaulax spinifera. Among these estuaries, Sal was represented with a high diversity of toxic species, associated with high phosphate and nitrate content in the water column. Further, the results indicate that the bloom of A. minutum suppressed the growth of other species of diatoms and dinoflagellates, suggesting its possible allelopathic effect.