Journal of Applied and Natural Science 10 (3): 958 - 963 (2018) ISSN : 0974-9411 (Print), 2231-5209 (Online) journals.ansfoundation.org Macroinvertebrates and its impact in assessing water quality of riverine system: A case study of Mahanadi river, Cuttack, India Ishita Ganguly* Article Info Amity Institute of Forestry and Wildlife, Amity University, Noida 201313 (Uttar Pradesh), DOI:10.31018/jans.v10i3.1817 India. Received: June 30, 2018 Lipika Patnaik Revised: July 25, 2018 Environmental Science Laboratory, Department of Zoology, Ravenshaw University, Accepted: August 5, 2018 Cuttack-753003 (Odisha), India Susri Nayak Environmental Science Laboratory, Department of Zoology, Ravenshaw University, Cuttack-753003 (Odisha), India How to Cite Ganguly, I. et al. (2018). *Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] Macroinvertebrates and its impact in assessing water Abstract quality of riverine system: The aim of this study was to identify the diverse macroinvertebrates present in river Ma- A case study of Mahanadi hanadi, Cuttack in India and to evaluate the role of macroinvertebrates in assessing river river, Cuttack, India. Jour- water quality and pollution level. We conducted field study of the river at Cuttack (85° nal of Applied and Natural 46’21.29” E 20°28’15.81” N & 85°49’45.23” E 20°30’50.00” N) during 2013-2014 and col- Science, 10(3): 958 - 963 lected aquatic invertebrate samples from 12 stations on river basin. The samples were analysed to explore the various families of Macroinvertebrates communities present in river Mahanadi, to examine the status of water quality of the river using biological indica- tors, to determine whether there are relationships between water chemistry and presence of typical macroinvertebrates and to develop a Macroinvertebrates based index to bio- assessment of Mahanadi River. A total of 484 taxa were identified and about 244 taxa of bivalves and 184 taxa of gastropods were collected. Presence of high number of pollution tolerant taxa and pollution sensitive taxa (Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Tricoptera and Chironomidae) indicated increased risk of water pollution and calculated biotic score (8), biological monitoring working party (BMWP) score (52), average score per taxa (ASPT) score (4) and macroinvertebrate-based index (MBI) value indicated moderate pollution level in the river. We recorded pH, total hardness, dissolved oxygen (DO), biological oxy- gen demand (BOD), total nitrite, chloride and total phosphate of water and physico- chemical parameters supported the values of biological assessment of water quality. Studying macaroinvertebrates helped to gain knowledge about aquatic faunal biodiversity in river Mahanadi and to develop a method for diagnosis of the health of river ecosystem and for measuring water pollution level. Keywords: Bioassessment, Ecosystem health, Macroinvertebrates, Mahanadi INTRODUCTION toring of water system (Abel, 1996; Ziglio et al., 2006). Several studies have found the discrepan- Macro invertebrates are organisms which are cies of data between chemical and biological large enough to be seen with the unaided eye and measures (Faulkner et al., 2000; Baker et al., without vertebral column, most abundant and di- 2003). The main cause of fresh water biomoni- verse group of animals found in freshwater which toring is to assess the relative impact of water include flies, Snails, mussels, worms, nematodes pollution on living organisms inhabiting in surface and crustaceans are used for biomonitoring of water. Freshwater organisms live continuously in water quality. Mac Neil et al., (2002) have recog- the water and sensitive to all environmental nized the concept that macro invertebrate families stressors (Morse et al., 2007). However, physical are very diverse, sensitive, population to pollution and chemical assessment is not enough to explain of a water body and may be suitable for assess- the quality of water because physical and chemi- ment of severity of contamination of water pollu- cal parameters cannot provide long-term pollution tion. An increase or decrease of macroinverte- (Bedoya et al., 2009). brate population in water body indicates pollution, The first step to analyse these organisms as envi- presence of stress factors and damage to the ronmental monitoring tool is the correct taxonomic ecosystem. This biological assessment of water identification. Bonada et al., (2006) showed that decodes more information than chemical moni- aquatic insects and other benthic invertebrates This work is licensed under Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). © 2018: Author (s). Publishing rights @ ANSF. Ganguly, I. et al. / J. Appl. & Nat. Sci. 10 (3): 958 - 963 (2018) are the most widely used organisms in freshwater 46’21.29” E 20°28’15.81” N& 85°49’45.23” E 20° biomonitoring and human impact on riverine water 30’50.00” N (Figure 1.The river originates from pollution. Aquatic environments are being modi- Madhya Pradesh of central India and carries over fied by anthropogenic activities regarding their 66km3 of water (Rao 1979) into Bay of Bengal biological, physical, and chemical conditions and near Paradip. Mahanadi is one of the major sea- many developed countries are using Macroinver- sonal rivers in East Central India and It drains an tebrates as bioindicators as they are included in area of around 141,600 km2 and 858 km long national and technical standards of water quality stretch which flows through the states monitoring in Europe. Biological assessment of of Chhattisgarh and Odisha. The river is mainly river water quality has become a widespread field used for fishing, propagation of aquatic life, prawn of research including US, Canada, UK, Australia, culture, transport & irrigation. We boarded the New Zealand, The European Union and the proto- boat from Bidanasi ferry ghat, Cuttack and trav- cols have been implemented successfully and elled into the river for collecting samples from vari- East Asian countries are now putting effort to im- ous stations upstream and downstream. We col- plement macro invertebrate biomonitoring protocol lected samples using kick-sampling method (Abel, (Morse et al., 2007). Biological monitoring has 1996) from following 12 stations of the river basin: advantages over chemical monitoring because it St-1: Dhabaleshwar, St-2: Mancheswar, St-3: integrates responses to a range of pollutants oc- curring over different times (Jüttner et al., 2003; Prasanapur, St-4: Kansaripatra, St-5: Kundakhai Emere and Narisu, 2007) Macro invertebrates Pathar, St-6: Medakhia Patha, St-7: Dihasani, serves a pivotal role to understand ecological sta- Nuapatna, St-8: Bhuasuni, St-9: Patheibara, St- tus of water body using biological indicator as a 10: Narangbasta, St-11: Nuadhia, St-12: Balikuda tool and provide accurate measures of stream (Fig.1). health. Within the organisms commonly used as Biological sampling: We collected macroinverte- biological indicators, benthic macro invertebrates brates from December 2013 to August 2014 and stand out as ideal due to: relatively low mobility the samples were taken with movement across and long life cycles, reflecting temporal patterns the stream, which avoided recovery of inverte- and local conditions; high diversity, abundance brates specific to one microhabitat (Ziglio et al., and consequently in providing a wide range of 2006). A 3-minute kick sample was taken as de- responses to different environmental pollution scribed in Abel, (1996) from each station. Several agents, large size and identification at high taxo- techniques for monitoring macroinvertebrates ex- nomic (such as family) resolution, well standard- ist, but kick sampling was considered appropriate ized and low-cost methodologies, temporal and as the water was shallow and it was inexpensive spatial stability and power to reflect changes in (Mason, 2002; Ziglio et al., 2006). To standardize ecosystem processes. Macro invertebrates are the method sampling time (3 minutes), net size, important bioindicators because of their limited person sampling was kept constant. Sample bot- locomotory abilities, their attachment to solid sub- tles were taken to lab by adding preservatives strates, and their relatively long-life cycles. Thus, (formaldehyde, 70% ethanol) as immediate identi- these organisms are well suited for monitoring fication was not possible. water quality in flowing water. The macro benthic Water sampling for chemical monitoring population is highly influenced by physicochemical (Random water sampling from select stations): changes, availability of the substratum, food and Water samples were collected from depth of 30m predation and certain types of human activities. an average from the river at each station. For The density of macro invertebrates also fluctuates analysis of dissolved oxygen (DO) of water sam- widely with seasonal changes. Macro inverte- ples by Winkler’s method the sample bottles were brates are an integral part of an aquatic environ- fixed immediately by adding fixatives in biological ment and are of ecological and economic im- oxygen demand (BOD) bottles of 300 ml capacity. portance as they maintain various levels of inter- Physical parameters and chemicals parameters of action between the community and the environ- water was analysed in the laboratory following ment (Anderson and Sedel, 1979). standard method of American public health asso- The aim of this study was to explore the various ciation (APHA, 1985). Water samples were taken families of Macroinvertebrates communities pre- from