Flood Effects on Water Quality and Benthic Fauna Diversity in the Upper Chao Phraya River and the Lower Ping and Nan Rivers, Thailand
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eJBio Electronic Journal of Biology, 2014, Vol. 10(4):113-117 Flood Effects on Water Quality and Benthic Fauna Diversity in the Upper Chao Phraya River and the Lower Ping and Nan Rivers, Thailand Tinnapan Netpae* Faculty of Science and Technology, Nakhon Sawan Rajabhat University, Thailand. * Corresponding author. Tel: +66 (0)5621 9100; Fax: +66 (0)5622 1237; E-mail: [email protected] this research will provide information on the water Abstract qualities and the diversity of benthic fauna in the upper Chao Phraya River, the lower Ping and Nan The final quarter of the year 2011, wide space Rivers. The results of this research will also be flooding in Thailand was heavily affected to compared with other research done before the to ecosystem in rivers. This research aims to compare determine any characteristic changes of water water quality and benthic fauna diversity of the quality and the diversity of benthic fauna. upper Chao Phraya River and the lower Ping and Nan Rivers in Nakhon Sawan Province between 2. Methods before and after the flood. The parameters including water temperature, turbidity, pH, conductivity, DO, Study Area - 3- BOD5, NO3 -N, NH3-N, PO4 , coliform bacteria and fecal coliform bacteria were measured. In the Nakhon Sawan Province is the place where Ping aftermath of flood situation, the results indicate that and Nan Rivers combine together to form Chao water quality of rivers after the flood is lower than Phraya River. In 2011, more than 5,300 cubic before the flood but both of them not lower than the meters of flood water per second flow into the Chao surface water quality standard. Comparison of the Phraya River, whereas the river capacity is just benthic fauna diversity in rivers shows the 3,500 cubic meters per second [3]. The annual significantly change as a result from the flood. Data maximum rainfall averages 292.2 mm in August and collect after the flood shows the decreasing of the the annual minimum rainfall averages 0 mm during January. The annual average temperature is 27.47 oC diversity and the evenness of benthic fauna in sites o o affected by flooding. (up to 38.2 C in April and down to 14.5 C in January) [4]. Keywords: Chao Phraya River; Ping River; Nan Sampling Collection River; benthic fauna. Water and benthic fauna samples were collected 1. Introduction from Ping River (site 1 to 4), Nan River (site 5 to 8) and Chao Phraya River (site 9 to 12) on March and The Chao Phraya River is the principal provider of April between year 2011 to 2012 representing water and many other resources that sustain Thai respectively the wet and dry seasons (Figure 1). people communities, playing a pivotal role in Sediment samples were collected by the Smith- people’s lives. The Chao Phraya River is a long McIntyre grab, while offshore samples were river of Thailand (about 370 km). It runs through the collected by the core sampler. Benthic fauna central of Thailand, and then empties into the Gulf samples were collected from field and taken to the of Thailand. The Chao Phraya River begins at the laboratory by fixed with 95% ethanol. conflux of the Nan and Ping Rivers at Nakhon Sawan province. In 2011, there was a great flood in 1 2 5 the central of Thailand, especially in Chao Phraya 6 Ping River 3 basin area. It is the worst flood in five decade of 7 4 Nan River 8 Thailand [1]. One of the most affected areas is 9 Nakhon Sawan province. The disaster of flash flood 10 Chao Phraya River caused serious losses in term of people lives and 11 12 properties. Flood runoff also cause the deterioration Nakhon Sawan Province of downstream water quality because of the Scale 1:900,000 sediments and waste from the ground [6]. 16 0 16 32 Kilometers Contamination of water, especially by organic Thailand loading, can cause characteristic changes in benthic community and water quality [2]. Therefore, Figure 1. Map of study sites in the upper Chao Phraya River and the lower Ping and Nan Rivers. ISSN 1860-3122 - 113 - eJBio Electronic Journal of Biology, 2014, Vol. 10(4):113-117 Determination of water quality and benthic coliform bacteria as described by Pollution Control fauna biodiversity Department (PCD), Thailand. Species Diversity and Evenness Index: The species The water quality parameters at each site were diversity and the evenness of benthic fauna in all measured in the field and in the laboratory as rivers were calculated from the Shannon-Wiener’s follows; temperature, turbidity, pH, conductivity, DO, Index, Simpson’s Index, and Pielou’s evenness BOD , NO --N, NH -N, PO 3-, coliform bacteria and 5 3 3 4 index respectively [7]. fecal coliform bacteria. All analysis were carried out according to the procedures by American Public Statistical analysis Health Association [5]. While sediment samples Flooding affected on water quality was evaluated were collected for identification of benthic fauna. with the one way analysis of variance (one - way Benthic fauna identification key written by ANOVA) and the Post Hoc. test and the Duncan Sangpradub and Boonsoong [6] was used to test (P<0.01). Pearson correlation coefficient was identify the collected specimens to the family level. used to determine the interdependence of the WQI Calculation of indices variables and diversity indices. Water Quality Index: General Water Quality Index (WQI) is a great management and general 3. Results and Discussion administrative tool in communicating water quality Water quality from the upper Chao Phraya, the information. This study aims at using the application lower Ping and Nan Rivers of WQI in evaluating the quality of the upper Chao Phraya River, lower Ping and Nan Rivers before A summary of the water quality for the sites and after the flood. The WQI was calculated base sampled between 2011 to 2012 in the upper Chao Phraya River and the lower Ping and Nan Rivers on DO, BOD5, NO3-N, coliform bacteria and fecal are given in Table 1, while WQIs of all rivers are depicted in Figure 2. Table 1. Water quality measured in the sampling sites from the upper Chao Phraya River and the lower Ping and Nan Rivers before and after the flood. Before the flood After the flood Parameters Seasons Lower Lower Upper Chao Lower Lower Upper Chao Ping River Nan River Phraya River Ping River Nan River Phraya River c ab a ab abc abc Temperature Dry 32.13±3.27 28.93±0.55 27.47±0.94 29.28±1.57 30.03±0.95 30.04±0.04 o ( C) Wet 30.54±0.69bc 30.72±0.51bc 30.27±0.65bc 32.78±0.63c 31.02±1.03bc 31.25±0.52bc a bc abc ab ab ab Turbidity Dry 24.46±2.17 87.44±18.60 62.00±12.27 47.67±9.44 45.22±28.79 41.08±13.19 (FTU) Wet 173.83±43.88e 180.33±51.28e 165.50±23.61e 104.58±5.36cd 161.44±33.26e 147.42±20.05de Dry 7.28±0.47ab 7.13±0.12ab 7.21±0.19ab 7.33±0.66ab 7.47±0.09ab 7.64±0.08ab pH Wet 6.81±0.29a 7.46±0.05ab 7.62±0.17ab 7.06±0.03ab 7.58±0.08ab 7.97±0.87b bc bc bc b b b Conductivity Dry 198.50±6.16 193.33±6.67 214.17±6.87 181.67±21.17 188.89±12.62 187.50±6.87 (µS) Wet 201.67±13.47bc 118.89±65.43a 170.83±27.54b 239.17±5.09c 176.67±15.28b 170.83±15.00b g def cde g cd efg DO Dry 7.41±0.57 6.29±0.28 6.04±0.41 7.53±0.35 5.83±0.15 6.80±0.18 -1 (mg l ) Wet 6.96±0.30fg 4.30±0.33a 4.68±0.85ab 6.13±0.40cef 5.60±0.15cd 5.39±0.13bcd a a a ab bc bc BOD5 Dry 2.25±0.89 2.27±0.12 2.21±0.81 3.87±1.85 5.84±0.34 5.77±2.14 -1 (mg l ) Wet 1.59±0.23a 1.24±0.45a 2.05±1.32a 5.72±1.03bc 7.98±0.46c 5.50±0.47bc ab a cd a a a NH3-N Dry 0.40±0.03 0.33±0.35 1.03±0.08 0.22±0.16 0.13±0.11 0.20±0.19 -1 (mg l ) Wet 0.31±0.15a 0.90±0.41bcd 1.27±0.20d 0.65±0.35abc 0.30±0.09a 0.43±0.11ab bcde e abcd a bcde ab NO3-N Dry 0.53±0.06 0.67±0.20 0.32±0.04 0.06±0.02 0.50±0.13 0.23±0.05 -1 (mg l ) Wet 0.58±0.07cde 0.75±0.18e 0.62±0.23de 0.03±0.01a 0.29±0.17abc 0.26±0.27abc 3- a a a b a a PO4 Dry 0.09±0.03 0.15±0.09 0.09±0.03 1.42±0.87 0.41±0.30 0.23±0.21 -1 (mg l ) Wet 0.13±0.04a 0.18±0.11a 0.11±0.03a 0.64±0.14ab 0.28±0.49a 0.01±0.02a Coliform Dry 1,350±443a 2,033±351ab 5,375±1,912bcd 2,500±577abc 6,000±1,000cd 14,925±3,645e bacteria ab abcd cd ab abcd d Wet 1,750±379 3,667±2,043 5,950±1,570 1, 725±222 4,333±577 6,600±2,291 (MPN) Fecal Dry 350±58a 1,000±100bcd 1,725±299 ef 500±115ab 1,467±231def 5,500±443g Coliform bacteria Wet 400±115a 1,233±253cde 1,850±238f 275±96a 833±153abc 1,875±538f (MPN) For a given water quality, mean concentrations followed by the same letter are not significantly different (p < 0.01), significantly at a higher b>c>d>e>f>g.